Album Notes

Mikhail Pletnev is widely known after his victory at the All-Union Pianists Competition (1977, Leningrad) and the 6th Tchaikovsky International Competition (1978, Moscow). His concert activities which started in 1978 were awarded the Lenin Komsomol Prize (1979) and the Glinka State Prize (1982).

Pletnev's triumph at competitions and his first concert season marked the emergence of an enormously gifted pianist on the musical horizon. Though barely over twenty, Pletnev had all the makings of a mature performer. He realizes his concepts with amazing perfection and great conviction, without any fear of breaking existing standards. His enchanting interpretations are dictated entirely by his concepts.

As time passes Pletnev's treatments again and again puzzle many of his listeners with their innovative character. Often this novelty results from his own analysis of the work's content which reflects the author's vision of the world. It allows Pletnev to free the work from the weight of standards and create his own interpretations which become increasingly laconic and ascetic with years, each detail bearing a great structural and content change. That is why to understand these interpretations a great mental work is required. They reflect the outlook and spiritual quests of an intelligent and honest man, with a capacity for profound feeling, pondering over life's eternal problems. This is testified by Pletnev's artistic discoveries in music by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Rachmaninov, Prokiviev and Schostakovich.