Vadym Kholodenko PROKOFIEV Piano Sonata No. 6 - Visions Fugitives

PIANO SONATA No. 6 - VISIONS FUGITIVES

Hee-Young Lim / Nathalia Milstein RUSSIAN CELLO SONATAS

RUSSIAN CELLO SONATAS

The New London Orchestra / Ronald Corp PROKOFIEV'S MUSIC FOR CHILDREN

PROKOFIEV'S MUSIC FOR CHILDREN

Diana Tishchenko / Zoltán Fejérvári STRANGERS IN PARadISe

This enticing album of sonatas by Ravel, Enescu, Ysaÿe and Prokofiev emerged from violinist Diana Tishchenko’s victory at the 2018 Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition in Paris. Born in Ukraine, and trained in Kiev and Berlin, she has been noted by The Strad for her " power to mesmerize the audience with her large gesture and strong personality”. Her musical partnership with the Hungarian pianist Zoltán Fejérvári is extraordinarily close and potent. In the words of the French online journal Toute la musique, they are “not two interpreters playing together, but a true musical entity, an artistic fusion … They played as if each note were being created in real time … deploying an infinitely large palette of colours and nuance – the possibilities were inexhaustible.”

Alexander Melnikov SERGEI PROKOFIEV 1

To listeners who know Alexander Melnikov’s cultivated musicality and fastidious pianism – so beautifully manifest in the series of Schumann trios and concertos with Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra under Pablo Heras-Casado – his decision to record all nine Prokofiev sonatas may seem an abrupt shift of gear. Apart from an early recording of the Visions fugitives (still available as a download from Sacrambow), Melnikov’s recent traversals of the Russian literature have focused on Scriabin, Rachmaninov and of course his much-acclaimed Shostakovich (8/10, 5/12). Though resident in the West for some time now, Melnikov’s credentials as a product of the ‘Russian School’ are unmistakable. Yet these fresh, strikingly original readings of two of the ‘War Sonatas’ coupled with the early Second Sonata suggest something well beyond the canonic Russian approach to Prokofiev.

Melnikov’s performances replace brute power with pellucid textures and a kaleidoscope of brilliant colours. Grinding motoric rhythms are superseded by an infinitely calibrated kinaesthetic sense of almost terrifying intensity. Transitions of tempo occur with the natural inevitability of a living, breathing organism. The precise dimensions and shapes of Prokofiev’s structures appear in sharp focus while his musical narratives, for all their wealth of detail, unfold with undistracted purpose. In all this, Melnikov’s dazzling virtuosity is never an end in itself but the servant of his vivid imagination.

The Allegretto scherzo of the Sixth Sonata evokes the orchestral richness of the Fifth Symphony, giving way to the third movement’s slow waltz, recalling the arcing lyricism of Romeo and Juliet. Without sacrificing clarity, the toccata-like finale is breathtaking in its sheer velocity. Though the more circumspect Eighth Sonata divulges its secrets with greater reticence, Melnikov’s close reading of the score delivers a performance of searing impact.

The sound is consistent with Harmonia Mundi’s customarily high standards. Comparison with other recordings is difficult. There is something here of the mercurial imagination of Sofronitsky, as well as of Richter’s hyper-sensitivity and Gilels’s executive perfection. But ultimately, these performances are unmistakably Melnikov’s own, representing, I believe, a new level of Prokofiev interpretation. (Patrick Rucker / Gramophone )

Alexander Melnikov SERGEI PROKOFIEV 2

“This first volume in the complete cycle must already be given pride of place in the discography,” declared Classica Magazine upon the release of Prokofiev’s Sonatas nos. 2, 6, and 8 (awarded a ‘Choc’ in 2016).

With this new volume, Alexandre Melnikov has chosen to delve into three distinct periods of the composer’s career, ranging from the dazzling though seldom-heard No. 4 to the magisterial No. 9.

In between those two, the sonata no. 7 once again evokes the troubled atmosphere characteristic of the three so-called ‘war sonatas’. Sviatoslav Richter claimed to have learned the piece in a mere four days.

Stanislav Khristenko PROKOFIEV Romeo and Juliet

On October 4, 2019, Steinway & Sons releases a new album from concert pianist Stanislav Khristenko featuring music by Sergei Prokofiev. Two works by the Russian Soviet composer are included on the record (STNS 30114), beginning with Ten Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 75 (1937). The composition features selected music from Romeo and Juliet, a ballet by Prokofiev based on the Shakespeare play. Music from the ballet was excerpted by Prokofiev in three suites for orchestra and a solo piano work, which includes selections from Act One through Act Three. Prokofiev premiered Ten Pieces from Romeo and Juliet himself in 1937.

Ten Pieces for Piano, Op. 12 follows, featuring a diverse set of miniatures that each evoke a starkly different mood. Written during Prokofiev’s student years, hints of school assignments and future compositions can be seen in the varying works, as well as evidence of Neoclassical and other 18th-century tendencies. Notable pieces include the light opening movement, March, which showcases sharp rhythms and a melody that oscillates between F minor and F sharp minor. The proceeding Gavotte, Capriccio, and Allemande movements each offer early use of the Neoclassical style, while the Mazurka features a Medieval organum procedure with two harmonic parts, each moving in parallel fourths. Ten Pieces for Piano, Op. 12 foreshadows the styles and patterns that Prokofiev would employ in his later compositions.

Sandro Nebieridze PROKOFIEV - RACHMANINOV

The Harmonia Nova series welcomes young artists singled out for their exceptional talents. For a pianist abundantly supplied with such gifts, look no further than the Tbilisi-born Sandro Nebieridze, finalist at the inaugural China International Music Competition and winner of multiple international prizes.

For his first recording, the eighteen-year-old has chosen an ambitious program of piano works which scale the heights of virtuosity (such as the Prokofiev Sonata) and are brimming with poetry. An album that demonstrates astonishing artistry for a young musician of his years.

Olivier Latry MIDNIGHT AT NOTRE-DAME

While Paris slept,’ reads the blurb, ‘Notre-Dame’s organist Olivier Latry recorded this musical celebration of well-known classics.’ Indeed, the absence of extraneous traffic noise, and the just-perceptible whisper of wind under pressure, ensure that the cathedral’s instrument is heard in ideal circumstances. The programme (recorded in late 2003) pays homage to the skills of a predominantly French group of transcribers. The exception is Liszt’s ponderous treatment of his future son-in-law’s Pilgrims’ Chorus. 

Dupré’s and Messerer’s Bach movements make excellent and invigorating bookends to this slightly uneven hour’s worth of music. Guillou’s transcription of Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue is a highlight: every contrapuntal detail of one of Mozart’s best fugues shines brilliantly. And Guillou’s virtuoso ‘colouring in’ of Prokofiev’s motoric Toccata takes one’s breath away. The en chamade reeds are used to wonderful effect. Resist the temptation to lower the volume level beforehand! Equally successful is Vierne’s transcription of Rachmaninov’s infamous Prelude in C sharp minor. It shouldn’t work on the organ, but it does. All that is missing from the luxurious tonal palette are distant chimes. 

Sizzling sounds abound, too, in Berlioz’s ebullient Hungarian March, though Latry applies a tad too much rubato at times (a complaint levelled at organists the world over) and the requisite rhythmic spring suffers. The two remaining tracks are of Duruflé’s nondescript transcriptions of Bach’s Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring and Mortify Us. The former is taken too slowly and Latry makes a slightly labourious job of the latter. 

These criticisms apart, the engineers have done a magnificent job in capturing the soul of this Romantic, symphonic organ. Latry’s mastery of both instrument and repertoire is undeniable. I recommend it to even those who have an aversion to organ discs or transcriptions. For those with an SACD player the aural experience will be overpowering. (Malcolm Riley / Gramophone)

10forBrass OPERA

Everything is possible on stage. At least that’s our impression upon hearing the members of the young, award-winning brass ensemble 10forBrass. On their new GENUIN release, no woodwind run is too fast for them and no string pianissimo too soft: they are both witches and kings, mermaids and jesters, angels and huntsmen. From Carl Maria von Weber to Sergei Prokofiev, no music theatre work is safe from the brass virtuosi – whatever isn’t bolted to the floor is fair game for the sizeable brass ensemble. Each opera scene is more beautiful than the next: simply ravishing!

Félicien Brut / Quatuor Hermès / Édouard Macarez LE PARI DES BRETELLES

A native of Auvergne, Félicien Brut shatters the image of the accordion! He discovered at a very young age the instrument and this popular music that characterised it for so long: the musette. Following thorough training at the Jacques Mornet CNIMA (National and International Music and Accordion Centre), he played at numerous dances over the years. In 2009 he went to continue his studies at the Pôle Supérieur de Bordeaux- Aquitaine for, in the meantime, he had also developed a passion for classical music.

The musette is celebrating its centennial, so this is the occasion to bring back, at the centre of a creative project, this style so characteristic of France and the esprit français from the beginning of the 20th century. 

Musette is perhaps the most multicultural musical style there is, born of unprecedented international encounters. Indeed, at the beginning of the last century, France, and especially Paris, experienced large waves of immigration. Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Eastern Europeans, and Latin Americans arrived in large numbers, settling in the capital. At the same time, France was undergoing a very intense rural exodus. Inhabitants of the provinces were leaving their countryside and also converging on Paris. Natives of Auvergne were amongst the most numerous and moved into the Bastille district with their favourite instrument: the musette, a sort of small bagpipe, of which the air bag is inflated with a bellows.

Yuja Wang THE BERLIN RECITAL ENCORES

Yuja Wang is one of those exceedingly rare pianists to have become a major international presence by her 21st birthday. Having performed by then with such orchestras as the New York, St. Petersburg, and China philharmonics, and the Chicago, San Francisco, and Houston symphony orchestras, she transitioned almost overnight from an unknown but hugely talented teenager to arguably the most famous Chinese-born female pianist. And with a multi-disc recording contract with DG and a schedule of more than 100 concerts yearly, she is one of the busiest on the globe, as well. While she has had success in competitions, Wang owes her sudden fame mostly to her role as a fill-in for superstar pianists who cancel on short notice. Most famously, Wang substituted for Martha Argerich in the Tchaikovsky First with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in March 2007. The reviewers were ecstatic in their praise for her performance. The following year she substituted for Murray Perahia on a concert tour that garnered lavish critical acclaim from Boston to San Francisco. Wang's repertory is broad and quite eclectic, taking in works by Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Scriabin, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, and others.

Christian-Pierre La Marca / Lise De La Salle PARIS-MOSCOU

There has always been a mutual fascination between France and Russia. And it continues today at the heart of this programme that we based on a unique coupling of works from the great repertoires of two superb composers of the same era: Gabriel Fauré and Sergei Rachmaninov. Following in the footsteps of the Romantic Movement begun by Chopin (who directly inspired Rachmaninov’s sonata) and Schumann (whose vocal oeuvre inspired Fauré), we are transported into a musical world at the very heart of an age, at the crossroads of late Romantic music and new experimentation with musical languages.

Our aim was to highlight the unique and different styles and languages created during the same period. This allowed us to underline the aspects of heritage and transmission, with Saint-Saëns, who taught Fauré who in turn would perpetuate a typically French tradition, or with S.Rachmaninov who, despite their occasional differences, was greatly inspired and influenced by P.I.Tchaikovsky, himself one of the guardians of Russian romanticism. Indeed the latter showed a special attachment to France by making frequent visits to Paris – he was a regular at the Café de la Paix – and his admiration for the work of another French composer, E.Lalo.

During my research, it became evident to me that I wanted to link the instrumental approach with a vocal approach according to writing and style. This is undoubtedly due to my numerous partnerships with great singers who continue to fascinate me. In my mind, the voice is the symbol of all that is natural and evident in a musical phrase. This has given rise to unique programmes (such as the previous albums – French melodies in “L’Heure Exquise” and sacred vocal pieces in “Cantus”). 

“Paris-Moscou”, an album devoted above all to the wide repertoire for cello and piano, also includes opera through transcriptions of French and Russian pieces of the same period. It is the result of a quest, which, through these musical gems, emphasizes both the tender lyricism and great virtuosity of the cello. (Christian-Pierre La Marca)

Nathalia Milstein PROKOFIEV / RAVEL

Figures of modernity in France and in Russia, Prokofiev and Ravel were both interested in older musical forms such as the suite of dances: through a reinvented Baroque language, their compositional research shed light on all the richness of their musical world. Written in times that were marked by the war and the historic upheavals of the early 20th century, Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin and Prokofiev's Fourth Sonata are linked to the memory of their dedicatees. Between memory and imagination, the works carry on a dialogue…

Born in 1995 to a family of musicians, Nathalia Milstein starts the piano at the age of 4 with her father Serguei Milstein and enters his class in the Geneva Conservatory of Music in 2009. In 2013, Nathalia enters the class of Nelson Goerner at the Geneva High School of Music, where she completes her Bachelor and Master's degrees with distinction. Since 2017, Nathalia Milstein is studying at the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin with Nelson Goerner. 

In May 2015, Nathalia launches her international career by winning 1st Prize at the Dublin International Piano Competition and gets engagements all over Europe and North America in the most prestigious halls, such as the National Concert Hall in Dublin, the Zankel Hall in New York, the Wigmore Hall in London, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. In 2016, she makes a brilliant debut with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Marcelo Lehninger.
Nathalia performs in France and abroad, giving solo recitals and chamber music concerts throughout Europe, appearing in major festivals such as La Roque d'Anthéron, Lille Piano Festival, New Ross Piano Festival, International Chamber Music Festival of Schiermonnikoog or Zaubersee Festival. For several years she has been playing in duo with her sister violinist Maria Milstein. In October 2017 is released their duo album "La Sonate de Vinteuil" on the French label Mirare. Nathalia's debut solo CD, featuring works of Prokofiev and Ravel, will be released in March 2018 on Mirare.

Steven Isserlis / Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra / Paavo Järvi PROKOFIEV - SHOSTAKOVICH Cello Concertos

Prokofiev’s demanding, conceptually lopsided Cello Concerto, failed at the box office and has been little heard. Indeed, the only significant on-disc competition for Steven Isserlis’s blazing live account comes from the 2000 recording made by the late Alexander Ivashkin. With a Russian cellist and orchestra, the music sounds deceptively ‘Soviet’ so that we experience it counterfactually as a variant of the entity it would become years later when refashioned for Mstislav Rostropovich as the Symphony-Concerto, Op 125. Isserlis’s reading may yet mark a step change in the reception history of the 1930s original. No matter that Paavo Järvi’s accompaniment feels super-efficient rather than comparably spontaneous. Applause is excised.

While you might not consider the hard-edged companion concerto a natural Isserlis piece, the cellist has played it a good deal. Distinctly brisk, except in the initial Allegretto, the new studio interpretation is flexible rather than lightweight or disconnected in feeling, with no lack of soulful emoting. In the first movement Isserlis conjures some surprising, visceral sounds from his instrument, ratcheting up the tension with a febrile, nervy vibrato up high. Being less comatose than usual, the second movement can afford to proceed in longer breaths, the not-quite-immaculate solo line spurning vibrato one moment, sliding romantically the next.

Yes, Rostropovich was grand and implacable, more lyrical too in a sense, but you’ll have one or other of his Shostakovich recordings already and he was understandably committed to the revamped version of the Prokofiev. The present disc has its own built-in encore, as arranged by Gregor Piatigorsky, the émigré virtuoso for whom Prokofiev began his concerto and with whom Isserlis himself intended to study. The soloist contributes his own lively and individualistic booklet-notes, enhancing the value of a fascinating, I’d say unmissable project. Sympathetic miking ensures that his relatively modest sound is never swamped even if the suggestion of insectile buzzing is not wholly avoided. (Gramophone)

Elisabeth Brauss DEBUT

This is apparently the debut recording of the remarkable young artist Elisabeth Brauss. Born and trained in Hamburg, Brauss will be 22 this year, yet the maturity and sophistication of her thoughtful interpretations would be the pride of any pianist twice her age. In the last piece of her varied program, the Étude de couleurs for two pianos by the Bonn-based composer and cellist Michael Denhoff, Brauss is joined by Fabian Müller, demonstrating a lifelong commitment to chamber music.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this Beethoven D major Sonata is Brauss’s immense stylistic assurance. The opening Presto is fleet-footed without sounding pressured or rushed. Details are given their full due, from fermatas held not a second too long to delicate equilibrium maintained in the smallest phrase. Every gesture seems imbued with meaning and the whole motivated by an abundance of joy, with sly wit twinkling through from time to time. The tragic scena unfolding during the course of the Largo e mesto has all the more impact for its classically proportioned restraint. Brauss prepares and builds the movement’s climactic peak with consummate skill, lending the whispered final chords an all but unbearably desolate resignation. Never was a Minuet more welcome, and particularly this one with its exuberant Trio. The exquisite Rondo seems ebullient in the realisation that, the hard work accomplished, music may now run free.

Throughout the bristling rhythmic vitality, tricky voice-leading and constantly shifting harmonic colours of Prokofiev’s Second Sonata, Brauss never loses sight of the composer’s fundamental lyric impulse. She is also fully cognisant of the kinaesthetic sense that enabled Prokofiev to compose so effectively for the dance. When Prokofiev wants to raise a great noise, Brauss happily complies, just as, in the Scherzo for instance, she is able to generate a tightly wound, unstoppable motoric impulse. Embarking on the dark waters of the Andante is certainly mysterious but one feels a compass always at hand. Mocking parody and gaudy colours are woven into the circus antics of the finale, even as it scurries on its madcap course to an implacable cadence. Calling Brauss’s Prokofiev civilised would imply that it is somehow tamed, which is not the case. Better said, it is Prokofiev without brutality.

This passionate B flat minor Sonata occasionally verges on despair, redeemed always by the eloquence of Chopin’s rhetoric. The Scherzo’s volte-face to the Trio is a small miracle of characterisation. When the Trio is recalled at the end of the movement, it is suddenly recognisable as a portent of the Marche funèbre. Hushed restraint pervades that sad journey, funeral tolls heard from a distance. Out of this sombre cortège emanates a Trio that, in its ethereal poise, could be an aural avatar of Marie Taglioni’s appearance at the Paris Opéra ballet as the first Sylphide. The Presto finale conjures an apparition, indifferent to all that has transpired, its flight more felt than glimpsed, until its final dive brings the sonata to a defiant conclusion.

It is rare to encounter this degree of instrumental mastery wed to musical depth and sensitivity in one so young. Brauss’s exhilarating Beethoven is so thoroughly integrated that each movement is emotionally and spiritually amplified by what has gone before. Her original and unaffected Chopin-playing is fresh and a joy to listen to. If you find yourself uncertain about the future of the art of piano-playing, listening to Elisabeth Brauss could be the antidote.  (Patrick Rucker / Gramophone)

Jessica Lee / Reiko Uchida COLORS

Themed recitals seem to be in fashion at the moment. Sales may support them, but it appears counter-intuitive in this computer age of digitised music where you can compile your own mix from different tracks in the twinkling of an eye. Then again, a ready-made recital of ‘related’ works that can be played now or uploaded to your favourite listening device may have its own attraction.
The other issue with these recitals, as I inferred in a recent review, is whether they should be judged just in their own right, or whether each work’s performance should stand comparison with the best on the market. That particularly applies when mainstream pieces are programmed; in the case of Vitali’s Chaconne which opens this recital, I counted a good dozen alternatives on this site alone, including those by the likes of Milstein, Heifetz, Oistrakh and Francescatti. There is a middle path, though, and that is whether the chosen programme, and its delivery, works well enough to exceed the sum of its parts.

Violinist Jessica Lee, according to the liner notes, has followed a dream path from child prodigy to fully mature artist, with the cream of America’s music institutions behind her. The same could be said of her associate, pianist Reiko Uchida. I must say I’ve seen so many bios like these that it all becomes noise, reminding me of countless job applicants I’ve assessed, with glowing CVs all alike. So let me cut to the chase then based on results: Jessica Lee’s musical heart is in the right place, her taste is impeccable, and her judgement spot-on.

Naturally, the ‘colors’ here are tonal. Lee and Uchida play the Vitali Chaconne that has been through several arrangers’ hands, with its polychromatic mix of Baroque and Romantic harmonies. From the outset, the parameters of their recital are established: a warm, wide and welcoming piano introduction to a radiantly lyrical violin line – the tone is smallish, delicate and slightly brittle, but always intensely musical. This impression may be partly through the recording, which places Lee in a more sharply defined focus. Her style is also well suited to the rhapsodic Janáček sonata that follows, empathising with the work’s emotive nature. This is typical Janáček, with its broad spectrum of effects tapping into his Czech homeland, with hints of French impressionism and early twentieth century Russia, in a patchwork of strongly contrasting episodes, violent outbursts alternating with sweetly lyrical fragments. Lee and Uchida deliver it persuasively, underscoring the tonal richness of the piece.

Prokofiev’s Five Melodies are transcriptions for violin of songs for voice, but for vocal lines quite different from the harsh and angular kind he wrote, say, for The Love for Three Oranges. There is now a soaring lyricism which transfers so naturally to the violin that Prokofiev felt they came out better as such. These miniatures fit closely with Lee’s aesthetic, as she gives ‘voice' to them through a wonderfully broad palette of tonal range and expression. With Uchida in deft support, this is Prokofiev at his most charming and whimsical. It’s then something of a shock to jump back in time to Beethoven’s sixth violin sonata, but Lee acclimatises us quickly to it, making her case that this is a ‘sleeper’ among these sonatas, as a work of great poise and classical grace, but with emerging awareness of a new musical age. In a way it is atypical Beethoven, for once at peace with his world, uncommon in its “tenderness and gentility, humour and compassion”, as the liner notes say. Lee and Uchida perform it with apt sensitivity and, where demanded, sonorous brilliance. To finish the recital, they caress the ear with a sumptuous Heifetz arrangement of Debussy’s Beau Soir.
You might have guessed by now I’ve taken this CD on its merits, avoiding any work-by-work comparisons. I was soon beguiled by the unanimity with which Lee and Uchida have approached and delivered their programme, deciding it was a rather superior job lot. So to answer my earlier implied question of whether this recital exceeds the sum of its parts – yes, I certainly believe it does. (Des Hutchinson)

Raquele Magalhaes / Sanja Bizjak PATCHWORK

Raquele Magalhaes is an eclectic musician, fascinated by the chamber music, displaying her musical talents in classical, improvised or interdisciplinary performances. 

She owes her current momentum to the confidence of the French state who awarded her a grant throughout her years at the National “Conservatoire” of music (CNSMD) in Paris and in Lyon. Raquele Magalhaes received the first prize for flute in Alain Marion’s class in Paris and successfully undertook a PhD with Philippe Bernold in Lyon. She was a pupil of Celso Woltzenlogel in Brazil and Philippe Pierlot in France, Great Masters of the flute advised her, such Jean-Pierre Rampal, Paula Robison, Felix Renggli, Ransom Wilson, Michael Faust, Keith Underwood, Benedek Csalog. 

She was a prizewinner at the Maria Canals international competition in Barcelona, at “Jeunesses musicales” in Bucarest, and five times first prizewinner at Brazilian National Competitions. She began her career as a soloist at the age of eleven with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, the Rio de Janeiro University Symphony Orchestra and the Piracicaba Symphony Orchestra (Brazil). She pursued her soloist career with the National Orchestra of Lyon, the Pays de Savoie Orchestra and the Conservatoire Prizewinners’ Orchestra (France), the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra (China), the Ensemble Link Together (Germany) and the Galicia Symphonic Orchestra (Spain). 

Raquele Magalhaes was appointed Pricipal Flute with the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra in China in 2005-2007 and with the Conservatoire Prizewinners’ Orchestra in France from 2002 to 2005. She worked with Myung Whun Chung, Zsolt Nagy, Yo‐Yo Ma, Daniele Gatti, Josep Pons, Ilan Volkov, Lionel Bringuier, Leon Fleisher, Stefan Blunier, Mark Foster, Stefan Asbury, Pascal Rophé, Rumon Gamba, François-Xavier Roth. 

 Her great interest for chamber music has led her to participate in a variety of Festivals in Europe, Brazil and the Far East, such as : Croisement Festival (China), Martinu Festival (Czech), Classique au Vert Festival, Boucard Festival, Louberon Festival, Toulouse les Orgues Festival (France), International Brazilian Flute Association Festival, Londrina Festival (Brazil), Mednarodni Cikel Kocertov (Slovenia). She has performed in the Cité de la Musique, Salle Cortot, Orsay Museum Auditorium, Théâtre Mogador and the Salle Gaveau in Paris, Auditorium de Lyon in Lyon the Oriental Arts Center in Shanghai, the Orgelpark in Amsterdam, the Salla Cécilia Meireles and the Centro Cultural do Banco do Brasil in Rio de Janeiro, the Shiodome Hall and the Kobe Arts Center in Japan. At these venues, she has shared the stage and played chamber music with Maurice Bourgue, Sergio Azzolini, Wu Wei, Kenneth Weiss, Davitt Moroney, Karina Sabac, Alain Planès, Lise Berthaud, Philippe Bernold, Ariane Jacob, Xu Zhong, Emilie Gastaud, Theodor Comann, Romain Garioud and Alain Meunier. 

 In 2011 Raquele Magalhaes obtained her CA teaching Diploma and European Masters in Musical Education at the CNSMD in Paris. She worked with the composers Hugues Dufourt and Jérôme Combier for her research program entitled: “The contribution of plastic arts to musical interpretation”. She is professor at Fontenay-sous-Bois and Savigny-sur-Orge Conservatories. 

Raquele Magalhaes is the artistic director of the association “A Fleur de Notes” which develops Chamber music projects all over Europe. She is a member of the Orchestre Divertimento conduncted by Zahia Ziouani, as Principal Piccolo. 

In January 2013 she recorded for Naïve with the Choeur Accentus works of Janacek – a recording which received the highest recommendations from the cultural magazines Diapason d’Or and Telerama.

The composer Pierre Farago has dedicated his piece Borée to Anne-Gaëlle Chanon and Raquele Magalhaes who gave the world premiere performance in March 2014 at the Orgelpark in Amsterdam.

For the 2015-2016 season will welcome one new CD by evidence classics label from Raquele Magalhaes, Patchwork, gathers eastern-european composers from the XXth century.

Anna Vinnitskaya PROKOFIEV - RAVEL

Naturally when one thinks of the words piano concerto and Russian, Rachmaninov comes to mind, but this album proves that Prokofiev is equally adept at composing a masterwork for the piano, the Piano Concerto No. 2, which is made up of four movements. Though the recording quality is a bit too soft at the beginning when the piano enters, the tone is very crisp and bright and perhaps a little too polished-sounding. Prokofiev is less tonal here than in some of his other works, and this certainly makes the concerto a challenge to play. However, Vinnitskaya is more than up to the task, as her elegant, delicate touch moves through runs in the first movement with great precision and handles lively, playful passages in the third movement with great agility. Vinnitskaya's style might be likened to a ballet dancer: supple, strong, but never ungraceful. Sometimes the phrasing in the first movement sounds mostly horizontal; that is, we get the sense of the flow of the melody, with less emphasis of the vertical chords. However, it is clear that, though she has performed since childhood, she is young and there is still exciting promise to see her growth as an artist. Gilbert Varga sets a rapid tempo with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in the fourth movement, but the pianist's blooming, majestic arpeggi never lag behind. Prokofiev himself held Maurice Ravel in great admiration, so it is indeed fitting that Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major is the second work on the album. From its shimmering beginning with the piano and orchestra in a dialogue together, to the ethereal orchestral passages of beautiful tone color that are unmistakably Ravellian, Vinnitskaya captures well the spirit of the composer. Overall, the concerto is less of a showcase of the pianist than it is a tightly knit work between the piano and the orchestra, and once again Varga leads the orchestra with great skill while respecting Vinnitskaya's artistry. (V.Vasan)

Nareh Arghamanyan / Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin / Alain Altinoglu PROKOFIEV - KHACHATURIAN Piano Concertos

Nareh Arghamanyan's first recording for PENTATONE of solo piano works by Rachmaninov showed her to be an artist of surprising maturity who combines musical acuity with a prodigious technique. Her follow-up disc of the Liszt Piano Concertos confirmed one's favourable opinion of her potential in virtuoso repertoire.
Her latest release couples Prokofiev's 3rd Piano Concerto – his most popular and most recorded – with the Piano Concerto of her fellow Armenian Aram Khachaturian, a work rarely appearing on concert programmes and even less frequently on disc and as in the earlier Liszt recording she is partnered here by the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by the young French-born conductor Alain Altinoglu with whom she obviously has a close rapport.
Khachaturian's Piano Concerto dates from 1936 and attempted to revive the bravura pianistic traditions of Liszt while at the same time introducing material in the concerto that derived from Armenian folk sources, though the composer denied quoting directly from such sources.
The bass drum thwack that opens the work resonates impressively in PENTATONE's vivid recording made in the Haus des Rundfunks, RBB Berlin in October 2013 and Nareh Arghamanyan's decisive first entry illustrates both the physical strength of her playing and her virtuosity as the movement proceeds. She plays the first of the movement's two long solo passages with a relaxed improvisatory feel and brings great exuberance and stunning virtuosity to the second.
The haunting central 'Andante' begins and ends with the bass clarinet extemporising under soft chords on muted strings before the gentle entry of the soloist. Khachaturian's scoring calls for a most unusual, and frankly bizarre sounding instrument – the flexatone, to be used in this movement. For this recording, however, Alain Altinoglu, has replaced the flexatone by a musical saw which certainly blends better with the strings and sounds here little different from a theremin or an ondes martinot.
The jazzy and sometimes even orgiastic finale is given a terrific performance from both soloist and orchestra, the music only slowing for the brilliant cadenza before building to a restatement of the first movement's opening theme and then driving to its thrilling and emphatic final chords.
Though this concerto has often been accused of brashness and empty rhetoric it is still worth an occasional outing especially when heard in such a beautifully recorded and committed performance as this one by Nareh Arghamanyan.
The Prokofiev concerto that follows faces much tougher competition from countless rival recordings and though Arghaman's playing has all the necessary fire power her performance fails to match the best of the SACD alternative versions in this piece that include those from Byron Janis, Freddy Kempff and Denis Matsuev. Thanks to the rather cautious tempi adopted by Altinoglu and Arghamanyan her account lacks the flamboyance of those mentioned above and its slightly restrained quality, while sometimes appropriate in the slower section of the work, misses some of the composer's wit and panache in the outer movements.
It must, however, be said that the orchestral contribution could hardly be finer. I can't recall a recording that reveals so much subtle detail in Prokofiev's orchestral writing and needless to say PENTATONE's sound quality is beyond reproach.
Those seeking this release for the Khachaturian Piano Concerto need not hesitate. (2014 Graham Williams and SA-CD)