Prokofiev, Scriabin, Liapunov: Russian Virtuoso Piano Music - Stephen Hough, piano

STEPHEN HOUGH Russian Music liner notes

One of music's true originals, Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) dared to shake his fist at Soviet officialdom. His first piano Sonata, op. 1 (1909) hardly extends the language of Russia's ancien régime (Glazunov, Arensky, Liadov, etc. ); but within a remarkably short time he insisted on a more muscular tradition of speech, shorn of easy sentiment and confidently throwing all discretion to the wind...Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) was a precocious genius whose early waltzes, mazurkas, preludes, nocturnes, etc. declare their Chopinesque bias. Scriabin's individuality is, however, paramount and his early sophistication is greatly extended in other later examples of these genres and most of all in his 10 piano Sonatas...Finally, as a garland of encores, Stephen Hough plays three of Sergey Liapunov's 12 Transcendental Etudes, op. 11. Although Liapunov (1859-1924) felt unable too escape the shadows of both Liszt and Balakirev he turned such influence to picturesque and evocative advantage.