Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker Suite, Album for the Young : Malikova

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky:

Concert suite from the ballet "The Sleeping Beauty" op. 66
arranged for Piano by Mikhail Pletnev

The Children‘s Album op. 39
Original score for Piano Solo

Concert suite from the ballet "The Nutcracker" op. 71
arranged for Piano by Mikhail Pletnev

Anna Malikova, piano

Recorded: Campus 44, Krefeld-Fichtenhain, August 2009

booklet: German, English

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s body of work contains a considerable number of piano pieces, but only a few of these are included in pianists’ regular repertoires. People are mostly only aware of the composer for his symphonies, instrumental concertos, operas and above all his ballets.

"Sleeping Beauty" and "The Nutcracker"are counted among his great classics. With enchanting melodies, drama, richness of colour, - music to pull your heart strings, his mastery of music is unsurpassed. Musical gems such as these have repeatedly inspired arrangements. Probably the best known piano arrangements are the Concert Suites by Mikhail Pletnev. This pianist, conductor and composer had a weakness for romantic and Russian music, and he contributed to the repertoire with his own piano arrangements and transcriptions.

Anna Malikova: "When I discovered these two concert suites by Mikhail Pletnev, I was hooked. Pletnev managed to create highly virtuoso, cultured and original versions of these two ballets. Both suites are marked by brilliance, virtuosity, and a great sense of the technical possibilities of the piano. And since these immortal classics of ballet are enchanting to children both young and old, it seemed the obvious choice to couple them with the rarely played 24 pieces from the ‘Album for Children’."

Anna Malikova, who comes from Uzbekistan and studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, is an ideal exponent of Russian music of the 19th century. Through her exemplary technique, which even in the most complex of passages allows her playing to ripple like pearls, the Concert Suites take on the highest degree of brilliance and sincerity. Ms Malikova has found the natural flow of the music, and eschewing any extroverted display, treats us to both technical bravura and keen vitality with impressive elegance. This is her contribution to a symbiosis of Russian music. ( Farao Classics )