Natalia Prass

Natalia Makarova, one of the most important interpreters of the classical ballet repertoire in the twentieth century, has also had great success as a producer. Her staging of Swan Lake is based on the original choreography by Petipa and Ivanov, with additional choreography by the late Sir Frederick Ashton. Evelyn Hart and Peter Schaufuss dance the main roles in this studio recording. Makarova’s innovative interpretation presents the work as a story of perfect and eternal love. The main focus is on Siegfried’s love for Odette, her love for him, his unfaithfulness, for which she ultimately forgives him, and her self-sacrifice in going to her death with him in order to break the power of an evil curse.

In all three quartets the Borodin play with an easy authority and what seems to be perfect style. There are no obvious interpretative quirks, there's nothing showy to get between the music and the listener, and it is evident that these musicians are thoroughly immersed in the authentic Russian tradition of playing Tchaikovsky's music. Technically and tonally they are first rate, and they combine well with the two excellent extra players in Souvenir de Florence.

Bringing together Brahms's three Sonatas for violin and piano is both an obvious choice and a challenge. Obvious because, as all three come from the composer's mature works, they share a similarity of inspiration – nature, the voice – and aesthetics; a challenge because each, however, has its own character and expression, the first melancholy, the last dramatic and the second lyrical and exalted. By placing them side by side, Sergey Ostrovsky and Natalia Morozova dive into Brahmsian interiority, all the facets of which the musicians capture with infinite delicacy.