Arcadi Volodos SCHUBERT Piano Sonata D 959 - Minuets D 334, D 335, D 600

Whenever Arcadi Volodos elects to make a recording, it is a knowing and well-considered decision: the Russian pianist is not one of those artists who are forever flooding the market with new releases. The number of his recordings in manageable. In 2017, after a lengthy break, Sony Classical released a Brahms CD. Four years earlier he had recorded a highly praised CD of Impressionistic jewels by the Catalan composer Frederic Mompou (1893–1987). This explains why on this occasion, too, Arcadi Volodos has taken his time. 

“It makes no sense for me to rattle off a work that has already been recorded a hundred times before. A studio recording should also be a legacy.” For years he has been carrying Schubert’s A major Sonata around with him. “I’ve lived with this work,” he says. “I leave many pieces to lie fallow for years, then play them again and wonder if I ac- tually want to record them.” A work committed to disc is a snapshot in time. “Who knows how I’ll still be playing it in ten years’ time.”

Volodos plays MOMPOU

Fans of Catalonian miniaturist Frederic Mompou are used to looking in out-of-the-way places for his music: small labels, encores of recitals. Yet here he is, presented in full major-label splendor by Sony Classical, with a substantial hard-bound booklet, performed by Russian pianist Arcadi Volodos. It may be that confusing times are good for the reputation of this most inward of composers, but whatever the reason, this recording will introduce a lot of people to Mompou's fascinating world. His music is essentially a compressed version of the Impressionist language, with dashes of Satie's elliptical mode and perhaps the mysticism of Scriabin. Mompou goes further in the directions of both dissonance and diatonic harmony than did the Impressionists, and his use of simple harmony as a kind of color effect is unique in the entire concert music repertory. Some people are completely puzzled by Mompou, most of whose music proceeds at the same basic slow-to-moderate tempo. Try Volodos out! He has the knack of getting strong profiles of individual phrases while still keeping the whole thing at a sort of glimmering level. You can get a foothold with the Musica callada XV (track 20), which seems to take Chopin's Prelude in E minor, Op. 28/4, as a point of departure. From its opening figure the listener is drawn into Mompou's murky yet gentle world, which some filmmaker ought to exploit. The difficult-to-translate Musica callada (¡callate!, be quiet, mothers say to their children; "Music that Has Become Quiet" is close) is Mompou's greatest work; in it, his extremely concise language, almost completely eschewing motivic development, is brought to a fascinating extreme. Volodos has the control to get something like the last bars of Schubert's Winterreise out of the music here: it really does seem to exist on the lip of nothingness. Strongly recommended for all, and really something of a milestone. (James Manheim)

Volodos plays BRAHMS

Four years after his fascinating and highly praised album with works of the Spanish composer Mompou, Arcadi Volodos went into the Berlin Teldex Studio again to deliver another reference recording, this time with the music of Johannes Brahms. Volodos has played the Brahms solo pieces over the past years in places all over the world and received highest critical acclaim for his interpretation. The Brahms solo works are perfect to show Volodos unique ability to create a special and magic sound, a sound “which lifts us, the listener, into the air and which makes us believe that the world is floating" (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). Recorded in the famous Teldex Studios Berlin in three sessions (2015 - 2017) on a great Steinway Grand Piano specially tuned by Michel Brandjes, one of the best tuners in the world. There is no editing in this recording. Volodos played every piece over and over again to develop his idea of structure and sound and chose the best version of each piece after the end of the recording. (Presto Classical)