Rachmaninoff: 王羽佳

Né dans une famille de musiciens à Riga, en République socialiste soviétique de Lettonie, le 10 janvier 1948, Mischa Maisky apprend le violoncelle à l'âge de huit ans et entre en 1962 au Conservatoire de Leningrad. Après des débuts avec l'Orchestre philharmonique de Leningrad, il remporte en 1966 le 6e prix du Concours international Tchaîkovski et suit les cours de Mstislav Rostropovitch au Conservatoire de Moscou. Avant d'entamer une carrière internationale brillante, il est arrêté par les autorités et retenu pendant près de trois ans entre une prison et un camp de travail, puis rejoint sa soeur en Israël en 1972.

Pianist Sheng Cai devotes his latest recording to piano works by the renowned Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. Dedicated to composer Aleksandr Zatayevich and revised in 1940, Six moments musicaux, Op. 16 represents a turning point in Rachmaninoff's writing for solo piano. Abandoning the conventions of salon music, the work is imbued with heightened Romanticism and technical complexity. Rachmaninoff's Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 36 overflows with intertwined countermelodies in the style of Robert Schumann and with its astonishing virtuosity, follows in the footsteps of Franz Liszt. Rachmaninoff and his friend, the celebrated pianist Vladimir Horowitz, enjoyed transcribing celebrated opera arias, allowing themselves the freedom to change their interpretations spontaneously. It is in this same spirit that Sheng Cai transcribed and performs the piano transcription of the opera Aleko. "I try to create new sounds and colors on the piano which differ from[those in] the orchestral versions of these scores," says Cai. Long attributed to Rachmaninoff, the Polka de W. R. is in fact by German composer Franz Behr (1837-1898). In 1911, Rachmaninoff made this brilliant arrangement of his father's favorite polka. Sheng Cai studied at Shanghai Conservatory of Music and was a top prize winner at the 1998 National Competition. The following year, his family immigrated to Canada where he began studying at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. He earned his Bachelor of Music Degree under full scholarship at New England Conservatory in Boston. His most important teachers include legendary pianists Anton Kuerti and Russell Sherman.

Edward Gardner is an English conductor. In his childhood he was a chorister at Gloucester Cathedral, and he took lessons in clarinet, piano, and organ. After graduating from the King's School and Eton College, he attended the University of Cambridge as a choral scholar in the celebrated King's College Choir. He developed an interest in conducting at Eton and Cambridge, and pursued it at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied under Colin Metters and graduated in 2000.

Edward Gardner is an English conductor. In his childhood he was a chorister at Gloucester Cathedral, and he took lessons in clarinet, piano, and organ. After graduating from the King's School and Eton College, he attended the University of Cambridge as a choral scholar in the celebrated King's College Choir. He developed an interest in conducting at Eton and Cambridge, and pursued it at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied under Colin Metters and graduated in 2000.

Two of most popular Rachmaninoff's pieces, and vocalise (arranged for orchestra), performed by State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia (Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra), conducted by Leonard Slatkin, with Denis Matsuiev on piano. Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Moscow.