Visions

Nicholas Angelich’s new album is dedicated to Prokofiev, the so-called unclassifiable artist– considered revolutionary by some, neo-classical by others. Coming to public attention as a virtuoso pianist, Sergei Prokofiev left a fascinating body of work, that of a composer torn between two societies, between the culture of his homeland and the unchallenged culture of the West.

Taking Prokofiev's Visions fugitives as it's starting point, this recording explores five contrasting universes of miniatures and presents a journey through the infinitely rich palette of the ephemeral. Liszt, Bartók, Chopin, Arzoumanov and Prokofiev revealed themselves in these short and sometimes apparently lightweight works, granting us access to their inner worlds, which each of us is free to explore through our own prism of the imagination.

Works from three different musical eras seemingly unconnected – but in the mind of Pianist Stephen Beville very linked – hence the album title – as inspired by Visions and Ventures: Bach always a visionary musically and guided by his religious faith; Beethoven venturing into Romanticism with revolutionary ideas and optimism for a better world; Prokofiev caught up in the unrest in pre-revolutionary Russia, sketching pieces to escape the political turmoil – at least in his imagination. The Visions Fugitives come from a composer in his mid-twenties, just graduated and full of musical confidence, and are typically Prokofievian while some contain radical modernist elements. The Beethoven Sonata is likewise the work of a young 26-year old. It is full of playful invention and optimism and is perhaps one his most appealing works. Stephen Beville was acclaimed in 2010 as ‘one of the most talented young musicians to emerge from the UK’. (Frankfurter Neue Press).