Winner of the first prize in the Tchaikovsky Competition and second prize in the Rachmaninov Competition, Nikolai Lugansky, born in 1972 in Moscow, is one of the best pianists from the young Russian generation. Although he is particularly at ease with the Slav repertoire, as demonstrated in Rachmaninov’s Preludes and Musical Moments which appear to flow from under his fingers, he also gives a beautiful rendition of Brahms’ Six Piano Pieces Opus 118 in which he combines cutting accents and great delicacy.
The Six Pieces for Piano (Sechs Klavierstücke, in German), Op 118, were composed by Johannes Brahms in 1893 and dedicated to Clara Schumann. It is one of the latest collections of pieces for that instrument that the composer wrote and also one of his last works.
In the sixth piece Brahms used a variation on the theme Dies irae.
The six pieces that make up the work are four interludes, a ballade and a romance, arranged as follows:
Intermezzo # 1: Allegro non assai, ma molto appassionato, at the least.
# 2 Intermezzo: Andante Teneramente, at most.
Ballade # 3: energetic Allegro in G minor.
# 4 Intermezzo: Allegretto agitato a little, in F minor.
# 5 Romance: Andante in F major.
# 6 Intermezzo: Andante, long e mesto, in E flat minor.
Really great. Sometimes the music breaths...
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