When it comes to piano literature, Russian pianist Oleg Marshev has two big passions: the music of his compatriots and the lesser-known repertoire. He tells Jeremy Nicholas why going boldly where few have gone before can be so rewarding.
INTERNATIONAL PIANO November December 2007 Tchaikovsky Piano Concertos — nos.1 in in B flat minor op.23, 2 in G major op.44 (original version) & 3 in E flat major op.75, Andante and Finale op.79 (orch.Taneyev). Concert Fantasia in G major op.56. Allegro in C minor op.posth. Oleg Marshev pf Aalborg Symphony Orchestra / Owain Arwel Hughes Danacord DACOCD 586-587 Recorded in 2001-2, this Tchaikovsky cycle has been a long time coming. Finely produced and engineered, enjoying committed support from the Aalborg band and strong direction under Hughes, here are performances of style and authority, knocking just about every other into a cocked hat. What's more there's no set currently more complete: the early C minor Allegro for piano and strings...
INTERNATIONAL PIANO March/April 2006 Brahms The Early Brahms Piano Sonata No. 1, Op.1. Variations on a Theme by Schumann, Op. 9. Four Ballades, Op. 10 Oleg Marshev (pf) Danacord DACOCD 643 Oleg Marshev has tackled a very wide range of Romantic repertoire on disc, including a series of Danish Romantic piano concertos and the piano music of Emil von Sauer. Here he turns to music that is more mainstream, though with the exception of the Ballades these works are not as frequently heard as they might be. Brahms's C major Sonata is in fact his second work in the genre (the first was the F sharp minor op.2). Like Mendelssohn's op.106, the shadow of Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" looms large in the...
INTERNATIONAL PIANO March/April 2004 Shostakovich Piano Concerto no.1 in C minor, Op.35. Piano Concerto no. 2 in F, Op.102. 24 Preludes, Op. 34 Oleg Marshev (piano) Helsingborg SO/ Hannu Lintu Danacord DACOCD 601 Who would have thought it? I have heard quite a few of Oleg Marshev's Danacord recordings, and liked many of them a good deal; but I was fairly disappointed with his recent Rachmaninoff concertos cycle. Now, out of the blue, he comes up with a Shostakovich disc as impressive as any I have encountered. In the concertos I fancy he has at last displaced my long-standing loyalty to Alexeev and the composer himself, and I certainly haven't come across an account of the Preludes that approaches...
INTERNATIONAL PIANO March/April 2004 Sauer Suite Moderne Aus Lichten Tagen 3 Concert Etudes Oleg Marshev (piano) Danacord DACOCD595 Russian pianist Oleg Marshev is unstinting in his devotion on the works of the German born pianist Emil von Sauer (1862 - 1942). So far, Danacord has issued five volumes in its series (N/D 2001); another volume waits in the wings to introduce us to the composer's Second Piano Concerto. For those unfamiliar with the compositions of this Golden Age musician, suffice it to say that they are highly virtuosic, not unlike the works of Anton Rubinstein (he studied with brother Nicholas) and vary in quality, in depth, and in interest. The Suite Moderne, dedicated to fellow virtuoso Giovanni Sgambati, is one...
INTERNATIONAL PIANO QUATERLY Spring 1999 SAUER Etudes de concert Nos. 21-30. Boîte à Musique. Couplet sans Paroles. Les Délices de Vienne. Echo de Vienne. Le Retour. Scherzo Valse. OLEG MARSHEV — pf / Danacord DACOCD 488 / 72' / DDD Hard on the heels of Vol.1 (DACOCD 487 W/99) comes the second disc of Marshev's enterprising survey of the piano music of Emil von Sauer, containing the remaining Etudes de concert and a selection of Waltzes for good measure. More so than in the first volume, the studies on this disc tend towards a finger-crunching toccata style (whether Mendelssohnian or Ravelian in character) rather than Chopinesque poetry, although there are notable exceptions (No. 26, "Preghiera", for example, or the extended...
