‘Chaconnes and Songs’ is the debut CD of award-winning Russian pianist Olga Georgievskaya (whose sister Liudmila has already released a recording of Beethoven and Schumann on Odradek Records). Her repertoire here ranges from Bach to Rachmaninov, including some of her own transcriptions.
One of the piano’s best examples of lyricism, the famous and very demanding Second Sonata of Rachmaninov, is intriguingly book-ended by two of the greatest chaconnes of musical history – Bach’s, in Busoni’s celebrated transcription, and Vitali’s, in her own arrangement. Just as Rachmaninov himself was as at home as composer, arranger and performer, Olga follows in his tradition: having underpinned the formal logic of the sonata by framing it between the two masterworks of invention over ground bass, she draws into relief its lyricism by juxtaposing two further transcriptions – of Rachmaninov’s songs “Oh do not grieve” and “Fragment from Musset”.
Her deep instinct for these works is beyond doubt, and she brings to her keyboard a touch that is at once dense and delicate. It is a disc of monumentality and yet great emotional intensity. It brings to the fore one of the central paradoxes of her art-form by transcending the distinction between creation, arrangement, and performance.
Olga Georgievskaya has performed as a recitalist and soloist with major orchestras all over Russia as well as in Italy, Finland, France, Greece, Switzerland, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and the USA. Top prize-winner in several international competitions, she graduated cum laude from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where she also completed her postgraduate studies – her doctorate researched polyphony in the music of Rachmaninov. Currently a professor at the Moscow City Pedagogical University and at the Russian State Specialized Academy of Arts, she often undertakes highly challenging projects such as performing the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas in a series of seven recitals.
