Faldelli, Luca
Sergey Ljapunov: Piano Works
Issued on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of Sergey Lyapunovs death, this Da Vinci Classics album is a welcome opportunity to familiarize with some of his undisputed masterpieces in the field of piano music. Lyapunov, whose pianistic lineage came directly from Liszt, and who had studied composition with masters from the two competing field of Russian music (Tchaikovsky/Taneyev on the one hand, and Balakirev on the other) was able to build his own style with elements from all of these schools. He derived his astonishing pianistic virtuosity from Liszts school; his mastery of the form from the Western-looking Russian masters; his knowledge of the Russian folk heritage from the Mighty Five and from his own fieldwork - a pioneering undertaking in the domain of ethnomusicology. These elements surface in the pieces recorded here: the nostalgic Chant du crepuscule and Chant dautomne, and the powerfully written and technically demanding Piano Sonata and two Variation cycles (on a Russian and on a Georgian Theme respectively).