On the occasion of the 90th birthday of the outstanding musician and teacher Vera Gornostayeva, Firma Melodiya is releasing a recording of the live concert of her students. This is the first recording made by Melodiya at Moscow’s venue Zaryadye.
Lukas Geniusas, Vadim Kholodenko and Andrei Gugnin have been friends since they studied in the class of Vera Gornostayeva. The Professor jokingly called her favorites “three musketeers” or “three bogatyrs”. The disc contains works of Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann. All of these works the musicians learnt in Vera Gornostayeva’s class.
Lukas Geniusas about Vera Gornostayeva: “I am happy that she showed me the way to absolute artistic freedom (I mean knowledge of the tradition and using it as a starting point)”.
Vadim Kholodenko: “The responsibilities of every musician: classes, understanding of music and true love for what you do – this is what Vera Vasilievna charged you with instantly”.
Andrei Gugnin: “She was an incredibly honest person and an honest musician. She was not afraid to speak out what she was thinking. She did not try to look for easy ways. She always spoke sincerely, honestly and in your face, even things that you might not like. And being honest to life and your cause was important”.
Vera Vasilievna Gornostayeva, a student of the great Heinrich Neuhaus, taught for more than fifty years at her alma mater, the Moscow Conservatory. Dozens of her students became winners of international competitions and concert pianists.
The bonus track, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Romance for piano six hands performed in an encore, is only available in the digital edition.

Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major, Op. 53
1. I. Allegro con brio .......................................... 11.02
2. II. Introduzione. Adagio molto ........................ 4.19
3. III. Rondo. Allegretto moderato – Prestissimo ..... 10.09
Franz Schubert
Three Piano Pieces, D. 946
4. I. Allegro assai ............................................... 10.04
5. II. Allegretto .................................................. 12.08
6. III. Allegro ........................................................ 6.02
Robert Schumann
Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Op. 26
7. I. Allegro .......................................................... 8.13
8. II. Romanze ..................................................... 2.41
9. III. Scherzino .................................................... 2.00
10. IV. Intermezzo ............................................... 2.19
11. V. Finale ........................................................ 5.29
Total time: 74.48
Andrey Gugnin, piano (1–3)
Vadym Kholodenko, piano (4–6)
Lukas Geniusas, piano (7–11)
Recorded live at the Small Hall of Zaryadye on July 10, 2019.
Sound engineer – Mikhail Spassky
Assistant to sound engineer – Alexander Kondrashov
Project supervisor – Andrey Krichevskiy
Label manager – Karina Abramyan
Release editor – Tatiana Kazarnovskaya
Project manager – Marina Bezrukova
Design – Grigory Zhukov
Translation – Nikolai Kuznetsov