Lazar Berman: Romantic Sonatas

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Firma Melodiya presents recordings by one of the best known pianists of the 20th century Lazar Berman. A graduate of the Central Music School and Moscow Conservatory where he studied under professor Alexander Goldenweiser, Lazar Berman, while still a student, became a prize-winner of the World Festival of Youth and Students in Berlin, and the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels and Franz Liszt International Piano Competition in Budapest. He who struck the audience with his phenomenal virtuosity and unsurpassed technique became the best interpreter of Liszt's music in this country (in particular, he was the first Soviet pianist who recorded all twelve of Liszt's Transcendental Études). However, his repertoire grew year after year, while the pianist perfected his performing skills making them artistically well-reasoned. Playing piano works from three centuries, from early classicism to contemporary music, Berman especially shone in romantic repertoire. This album includes Lazar Berman's interpretations of a one-movement piano suite by Franz Liszt, which assumes an explicitly "autobiographical" character when it is performed by Berman, and first two sonatas by Robert Schumann, which appear as genuine "works by Florestan and Eusebius" with their bright psychological contrasts, exquisite reproduction of soul motions and inconstancy from rapturous reverie to dismal drama.

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