Atudes-Tableaux, Opp 33 & 39

BBC Magazine Award Finalist 2008 (Best instrumental recording)

'These forthright, beautifully weighted performances keep the emotion in check but never at bay. Op. 39 No. 7 emerges as one of Rachmaninov's greatest creations in a drama of life and death with playing equal even to the greatness of Richter.' (BBC)

Full recordings of the Etudes-Tableaux are rare.

Since his London debut in 1994, Rustem Hayroudinoff has performed in the US, Japan, Germany and Eastern Europe and has appeared at some of the UK's most prestigious venues.

The music here represents some of Rachmaninov's greatest piano music; universally loved and admired, evocative and virtuosic.
Rustem Hayroudinoff takes on the mighty Etudes-Tableaux, works recognised as an emotionally indispensable part of the virtuoso repertoire for most pianists.

Rachmaninov exploited the modern piano to produce elaborate tone poems of great emotional range. His first set of Etudes (Op.33) date from the summer of 1911, and the second set (Op.39) from 1917. These atmospheric solo piano pieces were essentially virtuoso showpieces for him to play while touring the world as a soloist, and were the last he composed in Russia before he emigrated. It seems that none were published during his lifetime, and only a few made it into print after his death in 1943. Rachmaninov pushed the boundaries of 'picture studies' even further than Chopin or Liszt, creating sets which are virtuosic in the extreme, with a tremendous passionate character and vivid rhythmic life.

Etudes Tableaux marked the virtual end of the nineteenth century virtuoso writings of the great composer pianists, and certainly Rachmaninov seemed to be writing less in the Russian tradition and more in the central and East-European tradition.

Rustem Hayroudinoff performs these difficult works with dazzling technique, and effortless fluidity.

Reviews:
'Rustem Hayroudinoff proves himself to be a player in the great Russian virtusoso tradition.'
Gramophone on CHAN 10095

'Rustem Hayroudinoff is a well-prepared and stylish exponent…'
International Record Review