Breton

El Alhambrismo es un movimiento surgido del culto a lo exótico promovido por los viajeros que visitan nuestro país y difunden la imagen de la España romántica. En concreto, el Alhambrismo musical del siglo XIX fue una moda, un tipo de sonoridad que enlaza con la tendencia pintoresquista y con la recuperación de ambientes de la música española de la primera mitad del siglo.

Alexander Koryakin, winner of the 2019 Jaén Prize International Piano Competition, has selected two perfectly paired masterpieces for his first Naxos recording. Liszt’s Vallée d’Obermann is inspired by his travels in Switzerland, and is a true symphonic poem for piano. Franck’s Piano Quintet in F minor, which Liszt himself found shockingly intense, is a cyclical work of passionate extremes, and a masterpiece of Franco-Belgian repertoire. Also included are Debussy’s L’Isle joyeuse, which offers crystalline brightness, and Jorge Sastre’s Jaenera ‘Ecos y temple’, with virtuoso expression drawing on a wide range of influences. Alexander Koryakin began playing piano at the age of nine, gave his first recital at the age of ten and at eleven won his first competition. Over the course of his career, Koryakin has given over 500 recitals throughout Russia and Europe, including appearances at the Piano Loop Festival in Croatia and Gegen den Strom Festival in Germany.

Angel Stanislav Wang, winner of the 63rd Jaén Prize International Piano Competition in 2022, presents his Naxos debut recital with a selection of works he performed during the competition. Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B minor is an undisputed masterpiece of the Romantic era, while Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor is one of the most intense and eloquent chamber works of the 20th century. Spanish music is always present at Jaén and is represented here by a selection from Granados’s Goyescas, and by Laura Vega’s competition commission Poema a un amor eterno – a work of intense emotion, calling upon the pianist to be more of a poet or rhapsodist than a virtuoso.

Russian pianist Valentin Malinin, winner of the 62nd Jaén International Piano Competition, has chosen a programme that offers moments of reflection alongside dazzling virtuosity. The album opens with Shostakovich’s imposing Piano Quintet, one of the composer’s most popular chamber works. Granados evokes a ‘Ghost’s Serenade’ with guitar-like effects in the exuberant finale to his Goyescas, while Prokofiev’s Four Études are among the most complex and technically challenging works of their kind. Malinin’s own inspired fantasy The Pearl Fishers, based on Nadir’s Romance from Les Pêcheurs de perles, serves as a fine encore, reimagining Bizet’s original in daring, compelling style.