Rachmaninov: Morceaux de Fantaisie / Etudes-Tableaux / Variations on a Theme of Corelli Nareh Arghamanyan

• Sergey Rachmaninov (1873-1943): Morceaux de fantaisie, Op. 3
• 1 No. 1. Elegie in E flat minor 05:44
• 2 No. 2. Prelude in C sharp minor 03:55
• 3 No. 3. Melodie in E major 04:20
• 4 No. 4. Polichinelle in F sharp minor 03:36
• 5 No. 5. Serenade in B flat minor 03:39
• Etudes-tableaux, Op. 33
• 6 No. 1 in F minor - Allegro non troppo 02:41
• 7 No. 2 in C major - Allegro 02:23
• 8 No. 3 in C minor - Grave 04:38
• 9 No. 4 in D minor - Moderato 03:04
• 10 No. 5 in E flat minor - Non allegro 01:44
• 11 No. 6 in E flat major - Allegro con fuoco 01:43
• 12 No. 7 in G minor - Moderato 04:05
• 13 No. 8 in C sharp minor - Grave 03:37
• Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Op. 42
• 14 Theme - Andante 00:57
• 15 Variations 1-7 04:06
• 16 Variations 8-12 03:34
• 17 Variation 13 - Agitato 00:31
• 18 Intermezzo 01:39
• 19 Variations 14-20 05:44
• 20 Coda - Andante 01:27
• Total Runtime 01:03:07

Info for Rachmaninov: Morceaux de Fantaisie / Etudes-Tableaux / Variations on a Theme of Corelli

In her early twenties the Armenian pianist Nareh Arghamanyan, winner of the 2008 Montreal International Music Competition, belongs to the promising generation of today’s fine pianists. The last season saw Nareh Arghamanyan making an impressive New York debut at the Frick collection as well as at San Francisco Performances, resulting in a reinvitation to their 'Young Master Series'. In concert she performed Saint-Saëns 5th concerto with the Winnipeg Symphony, the Saint-Saëns 2nd with I Musici de Montreal, and the 'Emperor' concerto with the McGill Chamber Orchestra. Nareh Arghamanyan has appeared with the Mont Blanc Symphony France, Moscow Chamber Orchestra and the Armenian Philharmonic. In this new PentaTone release, she now turns her formidable talent towards the compositions of Rachmaninoff.

'Nareh Arghamanyan has developed by leaps and bounds since her 2008 Concours Musical International de Montréal victory, followed by a debut solo disc containing proficient yet overly rhapsodic performances of Liszt’s B minor and Rachmaninov’s B-flat minor sonatas. Arghamanyan’s new all-Rachmaninov recital reveals a more disciplined, controlled, architecturally aware, and expressively sophisticated artist.

The Corelli Variations benefit from the Armenian pianist’s unified tempo relationships and overall symphonic approach in terms of rhythmic discipline, intelligently scaled dynamics, and a wide range of tone colors. Notice, for example, the wonderfully unfolding continuity she achieves by linking Variations 5, 6, and 7, even though the latter seems a bit slow in relation to the composer’s Vivace directive. Conversely, Arghamanyan enlivens Variation 3’s “question and answer” dynamic contrasts with specifically characterized accelerations. Variation 8’s myriad tempo modifications, however, are Rachmaninov’s own, and Arghamanyan proportions them to utter perfection. While the scherzando Variation 10 could be communicated in a lighter, more playful manner, Variation 12’s marcato and legato contrasts truly hit home. Listen also to how Arghamanyan shapes the Intermezzo’s rhetorical phrases and virtuosic filigree more or less in tempo, yet with seemingly boundless nuance.

The shorter pieces prove no less absorbing. Arghamanyan’s thoughtful textural layering of the C-sharp minor Prelude Op. 3 No. 2 amounts to a newly minted rendition of an overplayed warhorse. She markedly differentiates the B-flat minor Serenade’s expansive cantabiles and quiet stabbing chords much as the composer did in his classic 1940 recording. Each one of the Op. 33 Etudes-Tableaux fuses virtuosic refinement, textural clarity, and a gift for revealing the narrative behind the melodies that many younger pianists lack. Out of curiosity I compared Arghamanyan’s C major Op. 33 No. 2 alongside Yuja Wang’s contemporaneous DG recording, and wound up preferring Arghamanyan for her more expansive phrasing and riper sonority, helped by PentaTone’s full-bodied, lifelike multi-channel sonics. Arghamanyan’s own booklet notes discuss her responses to the music in eloquent, articulate, and refreshingly non-indulgent prose. A terrific release in every way.' (Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com)

Nareh Arghamanyan, piano

Nareh Arghamanyan
In her early twenties the Armenian pianist Nareh Arghamanyan, winner of the 2008 Montréal International Music Competition, belongs to the promising generation of today’s fine pianists.

Highlights in her 2011/12 season include her debuts with the Wiener Symphoniker and Xian Xhang, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Vasily Sinaisky performing Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt and Kazuki Yamada with Tchaikovsky piano concerto No.1, the NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, the Orchestre Philhamornique de Strasbourg, the Wiener KammerOrchester with Mozart piano concerto No.17 KV 453 as well as the Malaysian Philharmonic. In recital she appears at prestigious venues such as the Tonhalle Zurich, the Berliner Philharmonie, the Musikverein Wien; other cities include Hannover, Friedrichshafen, Bremen, Basel and Innsbruck.

In the USA Nareh Arghamanyan has made an impressive New York debut at the Frick collection as well as at San Francisco Performances, resulting in a reinvitation to their “Young Master Series” in April 2012. She performs at the Boston Gardner Museum Concerts and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Orchestras she has performed with include the Vancouver Symphony with James Gaffigan, the Utah Symphony with Christian Arming and the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal with Keri-Lynn Wilson.

At the invitation of Mitsuko Uchida, Nareh Arghamanyan returns to the prestigious Marlboro Festival in summer 2011. She appears at Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and Davos Festival. She has played at many festivals internationally including the Tanglewood Festival, Festival de Lanaudière, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the Colmar Festival.

In 2011 Nareh Arghamanyan signed an exclusive recording contract with the Dutch label Pentatone. The first disc (solo Rachmaninov) will be released in November 2011. Most recently, the Analekta label released her recording of the Rachmaninov 2nd Sonata and Liszt B minor Sonata to great acclaim. The Kulturspiegel wrote: “Arghamanyan takes on not one but two of the most difficult pieces in the piano repertoire for her debut-CD and wins. She dives into the notes with dazzling technique and artistic vision. The final movement of the Liszt-sonata has probably not been mastered so rapidly since Leon Fleisher. “

She has won an impressive number of awards: the 1st Prize at the 2007 Piano Campus International Competition in Pontoise and the 2nd Prize at the 2007 Jose Roca International Competition in Valencia. In 2005 she won the Josef Dichler Piano Competition in Vienna, and the following year was awarded a scholarship from the Herbert von Karajan Foundation.

Born in 1989 in Armenia, Nareh Arghamanyan began her piano studies at the age of five. Three years later, she entered the Tchaikovsky Music School for Talented Children in Yerevan, where she studied with Alexander Gurgenov. In 2004 she was the youngest student to be admitted to the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna, where she studied with Heinz Medjimorec. Since October 2010 she continues her studies with Arie Vardi in Hannover.

Booklet for Rachmaninov: Morceaux de Fantaisie / Etudes-Tableaux / Variations on a Theme of Corelli