Anna Fedorova performing selections from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, from YouTube video linked below.
Anna Fedorova is among the greatest pianists performing and recording today. Sure, my opinion. But well judged. Anna plays organically, self-effacingly. She consistently lets the music flow forth for its own sake, never as a way of saying "look at me, look how technically perfect I am." No, she gives voice to the composer, to the music, never to herself. And in doing so, she creates landscapes seldom viewed in performances by other, often more extensively promoted, pianists.
And, while her technical perfection is second to none, it is the emotional content of her playing that is captivating. She plays powerfully where called for, but with great delicacy where otherwise suitable. Her dynamic swings are immense, but always controlled, always with precision, always with intention. And it is perhaps the intention with which she plays that I find most consistently engaging. She creates meaning in every phrase, with every touch.
Over the years I've been listening to her recordings, and eagerly awaiting the next, I am never less than delighted with her performances and the programming of her recitals.
Anna Fedorova, Intrigues of the Darkness, works by Scriabin, Ravel, De Falla and Mussorgsky. Channel Classics 2024 (Pure DSD256, stereo and multichannel). HERE
This new release is a marvel of artistic interpretation, pianistic excellence, and communicative value as Anna takes us on a journey from darkness to light. She opens the 77+ minute recital with a fully engaging performance of Scriabin's terrifying "Black Mass" Sonata, the Piano Sonata No. 9. It is as complex and challenging a composition as I know, and moments in the music are purely terrifying. She then flows smoothly into a compelling delivery of Ravel's romantic Gaspaard de la Nuit, which Ravel so rightly described as requiring "transcendent virtuosity"—which Anna assuredly displays. She follows this with the mysterious world evoked in De Falla's El Amor Brujo and its powerful concluding "Ritual Dance of Fire." What a thrilling ride across these three well known works.
And this is all in just the first 43 minutes. The remaining 33 minutes is filled with as insightful and powerful performance of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (his original version for solo piano) as any I've heard. Her characterizations are delicate, creative, fun, terrifying, overwhelming powerful. All rolling, roiling, reeling from one brilliant interpretation to the next.
In her performances she is blessed with playing a truly powerful, sonorous and tonally beautiful Steinway that has been meticulously set up for this recording. It is just gorgeous. The lovely, natural acoustic environment of MCO Studio 1, Hilversum, Netherlands, is a full partner. And is taken to full advantage as Anna allows the massive walls of sound from the Steinway to swell, fill and reverberate in that excellent performance venue.
Jared Sacks captures this as only Jared does—balancing the direct and reverberant sound fields beautifully for some of the most impactful, and beautiful, sound of piano that one can hope to experience. Jared responded to a congratulatory email from me with: "Great playing by Anna. We used a great hall with natural acoustics. Piano and technician were tops. I just used a A/B with a m/s in the middle. trying to capture the right balance between the piano and the ambience of the space. No post productions except for some simple edits from Anna."
And capture the "right balance between the piano and the ambiance of the space" he most certain did—in spades!
On top of all of this goodness, Jared was able to release this recording in Pure DSD256. No PCM post production whatsoever. As a result, all of the sound from the performance is captured and delivered to our ears in utter purity. It is as transparent and natural sounding a recording of a concert grand piano as I have heard.
Here are sonics that are truly a credit to the outstanding musicianship that Anna Fedorova shares with us in this very remarkable recording. Kudos to all involved.
For those who have not yet discovered Anna Fedorova, take 8 minutes and indulge yourself by viewing this video as Anna plays the concluding two tracks from the album, Pictures at an Exhibition: The Hut on Fowl's Legs (Baba-Yagá) and The Great Gate of Kiev. This will knock your socks off.
Ukrainian pianist Anna Fedorova (b.1990) showed an innate musical maturity and amazing technical abilities from an early age. She regularly performs at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, New York's Carnegie Hall & Lincoln Center, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, Tonhalle Zürich, Théâtre des Champs Élysées in Paris, Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo, and London's Barbican Centre & Royal Albert Hall.
This is her fifth solo piano album. She additionally has released four chamber music albums and all of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concertos with the Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen under Modestas Pitrenas. Her Rachmaninoff concerto albums are superlative performances of these works. Available on Channel Classics Records, I treasure them all and highly recommend them to you.
My prior reviews of Anna's recordings can be found in these articles:
Anna Fedorova performing the Rachmaninoff Piano Concertos 1, 2, and 4
Anna Fedorova and Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto
Anna Fedorova Shaping Chopin in Pure DSD256 from Jared Sacks
Anna Fedorova: Four Fantasies for Piano
Anna Fedorova: Storyteller - Chopin, Liszt, Scriabin
Anna Fedorova - With Magic in the Air
Dutch Hidden Gems – With the Excellent Dana Zemtsov, Viola
Notes from Recent Finds, No. 17 - Releases from NativeDSD ("Fathers & Daughters")
Available from NativeDSD HERE.
All images courtesy of Channel Classics Records.
