RACHMANINOFF Prelude Op. 23/6
CHOPIN Mazurka Op. 7/2; Nocturne Op. 9/2; Scherzo No. 1, Op. 20
LISZT Consolation, No. 3; La Campanella
MOZART Variations on ‘Ah, vous dirai je, Maman’
K 265
RACHMANINOFF Prelude Op. 23/6
RAVEL Jeux d’eaux
SCARLATTI Sonatas, K 9, 19, 159, 377
SCHUBERT Impromptu Op. 90/3
SCHUMANN Romanze Op. 28/2
Eva Virsik, piano
Label: Keyart Productions, 2010
Total Time: 64:23
Interested to learn more about this CD? It was reviewed in the Fanfare magazine by the Washington Post music critic Patrick Rucker:
(excerpt)
Bratislava-born Eva Virsik ... an imaginative, charming, and cultured musician and an instrumentalist of formidable skills. The opening b-minor Scherzo reveals her as a beguiling Chopin player of immense authority... her poetic E-flat Nocturne strikes the perfect blend of sentiment, taste, and refined atmosphere. Both the Schubert and Schumann pieces are played unostentatiously and straight
from the heart. If her Ravel is colorful and sophisticated, her Rachmaninoff playing, exquisitely balanced, restrained, yet never less than poetic, is even more impressive. She plays Scarlatti with energy and conviction. Of the four familiar Sonatas she has chosen... the C-major, K 159, one of the more famous hand-crossing pieces, is a genuine tour de force. The same finesse of finger technique that makes her Scarlatti so fresh is also evident throughout the ‘Ah, vous dirai-je Maman’ Variations of Mozart, which showcases Virsik’s strong lyrical bent, as well as her keen intelligence and wit. Her take on Liszt’s La Campanella is nothing if not original, imbued with a refreshing capriciousness, pert accents, lilting rubato, and a deft grasp of the piano’s sonorous resources that seems ever to hold greater power in reserve. Virsik is a pianist I would like to hear perform publicly; I hope she has the opportunity to follow up with recordings of larger-scale works which, in addition to her other attributes, seems fully justified by her stylistic command.
- Patrick Rucker
Fanfare is one of the largest, oldest, and most respected Classical Music Magazines.
The complete review can be found in the January/February 2011 issue.
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