Prokofiev: Five Melodies & Sonatas Nos. 1, 2 Aylen Pritchin & Yury Favorin

• Sergei Prokofiev (1891 - 1953): Five Melodies for Violin and Piano, Op. 35bis:
• 1 Five Melodies for Violin and Piano, Op. 35bis: I. Andante 02:17
• 2 Five Melodies for Violin and Piano, Op. 35bis: II. Lento ma non troppo 03:25
• 3 Five Melodies for Violin and Piano, Op. 35bis: III. Animato ma non allegro 04:20
• 4 Five Melodies for Violin and Piano, Op. 35bis: IV. Allegretto leggero e scherzando 01:23
• 5 Five Melodies for Violin and Piano, Op. 35bis: V. Andante non troppo 03:35
• Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano in F Minor, Op. 80:
• 6 Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano in F Minor, Op. 80: I. Andante assai 06:46
• 7 Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano in F Minor, Op. 80: II. Allegro brusco 06:57
• 8 Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano in F Minor, Op. 80: III. Andante 07:13
• 9 Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano in F Minor, Op. 80: IV. Allegrissimo 07:22
• Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano in D Major, Op. 94bis:
• 10 Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano in D Major, Op. 94bis: I. Moderato 08:03
• 11 Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano in D Major, Op. 94bis: II. Scherzo - Presto 04:43
• 12 Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano in D Major, Op. 94bis: III. Andante 03:40
• 13 Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano in D Major, Op. 94bis: IV. Allegro con brio 06:42
• Total Runtime 01:06:26

Info for Prokofiev: Five Melodies & Sonatas Nos. 1, 2

Melodiya presents an album recorded by violinist Aylen Pritchin and pianist Yuri Favorin. 'He dislikes beaten tracks. He prefers to force his way through virgin thickets, crushing obstacles with a steady hand, breaking hard rocks and taking running jumps into deep streams…' The words said by a music critic about Sergei Prokofiev could be rightfully referred to the heroes of this album. Pritchin and Favorin are arguably the brightest Russian musicians of the generation in their thirties – the violinist, who combines the merits of the St. Petersburg and Moscow performing schools and is a winner of the grand prix of the Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition in Paris and many other prestigious tournaments; and the pianist, a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory, and an active performer of contemporary music. Aylen Pritchin's and Yuri Favorin's infrequent joint performances are known for their quite extraordinary repertoire. For this once they present Sergei Prokofiev's music. The composer, who started out as a rebel and tradition-buster, became a 20th century classic in his lifetime. However, interpreted by the young musicians, the vibes of Prokofiev's music rip the academic cliches to shreds. Three Prokofiev's opuses for violin and piano written in different years sound like chapters of a novelized musical biography and, at the same time, showcase the diversity of Prokofiev's creative character. The lyric cycle Five Melodies is an arrangement of vocalises composed in the 1920s for singer Nina Koshetz. Transparent and light Sonata No. 2 for violin and piano (1944) is an arrangement of the flute Sonata made at David Oistrakh's request. And Sonata No. 1 for violin and piano (1938-1946) filled with dramatic contrasts is the culmination of the album. The recordings were made in 2017.

Yury Favorin, piano
Aylen Pritchin, violin

Aylen Pritchin
began music lessons at the age of six. Since 2005 he has been studying at the Moscow Conservatory with Professor Eduard Grach. He has taken master classes with such eminent musicians as Shlomo Mintz, Yair Kless, Gyorgy Pauk, Jossif Rissin, Zakhar Bron, Hatto Beyerle, Natalia Gutman, Boris Berman and Vadim Sakharov. He has also won prizes in several competitions including the Tchaikovsky Competition in Kurashiki (Japan, 2004), Abram Ilich Yampolsky Competition in Moscow (2006), Pancho Vladigerov Competition in Shumen (Bulgaria, 2007), Canetti Competition in Haifa (Israel, 2009) and in Sion Valais (Switzerland, 2009). Aylen has given concerts in major venues in St. Petersburg and Moscow and in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Israel, France, Japan, Germany and Poland.

Yury Favorin
Born in 1986, Yury Favorin, who has been described by Journal Zibeline as a “very big musician in the Kingdom of Piano”, a “masters the most difficult: the art of silence” (Performarts France), possessing the “musical intelligence, impeccable technique and artistic sovereignty” (La libre), studied at the Moscow Tchaikovsky State Conservatory and received his graduate and postgraduate degrees under professor Mikhail Voskresensky.

Among the pianist’s awards are the Fourth of the Olivier Messiaen Competition in France, the First prize of Gyorgy Cziffra Foundation in Austria and Nikolay Rubinstein Competition for Young Pianists. In 2010 Yury Favorin became a laureate of the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Belgium that immediately boosted his international career.

The pianist has appeared with recitals, chamber music programs and as a soloist with orchestra at such famous music festivals as the “La Folle Journée” in Nantes and in Tokyo, Art-November in Moscow, “Musique en Vallée du Tarn” and “L'esprit du piano” in Bordeaux, the International Festival of Saint-Lizier in France, International Festival of Modern Music Moscow Forum: Francophony, International Festival dedicated to the 100th birthday of Olivier Messiaen, the Academy of the Festival Verbier in Switzerland and the International Holland Music Sessions in The Netherlands among others.

Yury Favorin has been welcomed at the great concert halls in Moscow and other Russian cities, as well as in Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Germany, Hungary, Austria, Norway, Italy, Japan, and France. His rapidly growing repertoire includes all main classical composers, but the pianist is also widely renowned for his deep interest to contemporary music and its promotion. He has regularly performed pieces by Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, György Ligeti, Georg Friedrich Haas, Peter Ablinger, Philippe Leroux, Richard Barrett, Salvatore Sciarrino, Hugues Dufourt among others and was invited twice as a soloist to perform Messiaen and Béla Bartók works with the Ensemble Intercontemporain with maestro Pierre Boulez as a conductor.

This album contains no booklet.