+Schumann: Kinderszenen, Op. 15

Alexander Gavrylyuk (piano)

For his second release on Piano Classics, Alexander Gavrylyuk has chosen a visual and imaginative program: the unusual yet logical pairing of two Romantic cycles: Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition - Memories of Viktor Hartmann" and Schumann's "Scenes from Childhood"

Gavrylyuk unleashes his technical and creative skills to evoke the Russian landscapes and images that inspired him: From the innocent-playing children "The Tuileries (Playing Children at Struggle)," the mysterious "Old Castle," to the quarreling market stallholders "Limoges. The Marketplace" to the grotesque gnome "The Gnome," the underworld "The Catacombs," and the menacing hut of Baba-Jaga "The Hut on Chicken Feet of Baba-Jaga" to the monumental Great Gate of Kiev "The Hero's Gate."

In Schumann's "Kinderszenen," Gavrylyuk paints the scene of a child's world, loving, tender, innocent and joyful. Fittingly, the recording ends with the piece "The Poet Speaks."

At 28, Gavrylyuk has had an impressive international career. He has already played with the New York Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (three seasons in a row) and his first release on Piano Classics has received rave reviews, e.g. in CHOC and Pianiste Maestro in France and 5-star reviews in FonoForum, Gramophone and
Fanfare.