Van Cliburn winner.

 

Vadym Kholodenko plays Rachmaninoff transcriptions.

I attended a concert by Vadym Kholodenko in Carmel, California, shortly after he won the gold medal at the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano competition. Indeed, here was yet another Russian-born pianist seemingly ready to make his mark at major international concert halls.

For this CD, he  chose a set of relatively uncommon pieces from two of Russian music’s “golden-age” composer-pianists: Nine of Sergei Rachmaninov’s thirteen intriguing piano transcriptions, plus Nikolai Medtner’s brilliant, but unjustly neglected “Night Wind” Sonata in E minor, considered his supreme masterpiece.

Here is the track listing:

Bach, J. S.

  • Partita for solo violin No. 3 in E major, BWV1006: Preludio
  • Partita for solo violin No. 3 in E, BWV1006: Gavotte
  • Partita for solo violin No. 3 in E, BWV1006: Gigue

Behr:

  • Lachtäuben

Kreisler:

  • Liebesleid
  • Liebesfreud

Medtner:

  • Sonata in E minor, Op. 25 No. 2 ‘Night Wind’

Mendelssohn:

  • A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Scherzo

Schubert:

Tchaikovsky:

  • Lullaby, Op. 16 No. 1

 

Performed by Vadym Kholodenko (piano)

Here is Vadym Kholodenko in the beautiful Bach / Solti Prelude in B minor:

 

 

And next, here he is in the Medtner Sonate op. 25 no. 2 “Night Wind”:

 

 

And let me end with a selection from the Cliburn 2013 Final Round Concerto – the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3, as performed by Vadym Kholodenko.

 

 

Tags: Vadym Kholodenko, Bach, Rachmaninov, transcriptions