Monday 14 October 2019

Darkness Illuminated: music by Alexei Stanchinsky at St John's Smith Square

Alexei Stanchinsky
Alexei Stanchinsky
The young Uzbek pianist Nafis Umerkulova has released a disc of solo piano music, Darkness Illuminated, on the Ulysses Arts record label, which combines music by Alexander Scriabin with that of his Russian contemporary Alexei Stanchinsky. On Wednesday 16 October 2019, Umerkulova will be launching the disc at a concert at St John's Smith Square with the Purcell School Chamber Orchestra, conductor Paul Hoskins. 

The programme combines solo piano items with orchestra music, with two Scriabin Etudes and Stanchinsky's Sonata in E flat minor, alongside Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 (with Umerkulova as soloist) including Clara Schumann's cadenza for the concerto (written in 1846).

Alexei Stanchinsky was born in 1888 and studied at Moscow Conservatory. Taught by Taneyev and recognised as a significant talent by Rachmaninov, Scriabin and Medtner, his early death in 1914 has meant that his music has been all but forgotten. You can see Nafis Umerkulova's introduction to the music on the disc on YouTube.

Full details from the St John Smith Square website.

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