Alexander Scriabin:
24 Préludes Op. 11

Siergiej Rachmaninov:
Sonata No. 1 Op. 28

As for these pieces I can tell you, I did not know anything about the Rachmaninoff Sonata at all until my friend Dietmar Falke told me to take a serious look at the score, which I did. To my surprise I found it most thrilling and decided to learn it. From the beginning of its premier in 1908 it has gotten a bad rap. It was not well received, and Rachmaninoff abandoned it. On top of that, Horowitz’s performance of the Second sonata in the 1960’s so captured the imagination of the public, that the D minor Sonata really never had a chance. I, for one, find it neither ponderous nor too much and whenever I have been playing it, the public goes along with this music quite happily.

I first heard the Scriabin Preludes in a Carnegie Hall concert of Gina Bachauer’s, back in my school days. The next day I bought a score and ever since they have been a constant companion in my repertoire. We recorded this music at the Wuppertal’s Imanuelskirche in March of 2014. Dietmar Falke was my wonderful piano technician and I brought my own Steinway D from my studio in Bad Meinberg. We set up on a Monday, and had everything in the can by late Thursday afternoon. [Peter Orth]

Completes this month Russia-bound release bulletin. Peter Orth pays hommage to Scriabin's anniversary recording the most romantic of his Preludes collection, opus no.11. The coupling is daring and intriguing: the controversial Sonata no.1 by Sergej Rachmaninov, often denigrated but actually performed and recorded by some of post-war most clever and interesting pianists.