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Prokofiev & Shostakovich, Violin Sonatas
Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich

Natalia Prishepenko & Dina Ugorskaja

Prokofiev & Shostakovich, Violin Sonatas

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: CAvi
UPC: 4260085534258
Catnr: AVI 8553425
Release date: 07 August 2020
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Label
CAvi
UPC
4260085534258
Catalogue number
AVI 8553425
Release date
07 August 2020

"The piano sounds mysterious, almost magical in Ugorskaja's hands, the violin is very clear, sparkling clean and present as well. The whole quality of the two artists is revealed in the sweetness and tenderness of the dim, rippling Andante, which takes off dreamily in perfect artistic symbiosis."

Klassik.com, 14-6-2022
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
Press
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About the album

It will remain a singular coup!!

NATALIA PRISHEPENKO & DINA UGORSKAJA

In February 2016 the recording took place in the Studio 2 of the Bayerischer Rundfunk in Munich. Dina Ugorskaja pursued the finishing process of the master with great impulse and unbelievable energy during all the time when her health abated, even to the point where she selected and approved herself the booklet notes by Tatjana Frumkis.This project will stay simply as a singular milestone, there was a lot planned by the two artists.

„………They were also ambivalent toward one another. Prokofiev accused Shostakovich of “devouring everything” (the fact that the younger composer dared to incorporate the street genres of entertainment music into his classical compositions), and affirmed that Shostakovich had no gift for melody.

Shostakovich, for his part, occasionally found Prokofiev’s music too crude, too clearly illustrative. Yet in spite of the largely unfair criticism they directed toward one another, each one never let his counterpart entirely out of his sight, or, to be more exact, of his ears. Ever since the 1920s their music
was featured on joint recital programmes.

The young Shostakovich acknowledged Prokofiev’s influence on certain of his own works. Prokofiev, when abroad, encouraged “chemical exchange between Russia and Europe” and promoted Shostakovich’s works in particular, even expressing the wish that his younger colleague be allowed to perform abroad, too. But that was not to be.

From the late 1930s to the early 1950s, their paths went on crossing in the territory of the totalitarian Soviet Union. Ever since then, the Prokofiev-Shostakovich dichotomy, an undeclared competition, has never ceased. (From the booklet lines notes by Tatjana Frumkis).

Artist(s)

Dina Ugorskaja (piano)

Born in Leningrad (now once more Saint Petersburg) into an artistic family of Jewish origin, Dina Ugorskaja started learning the piano when she was young, as well as voice and composition. In 1990, when she was fifteen years old, she became the target of anti-Semitic threats; her family had to leave the Soviet Union abruptly, and they fled together to Germany. The “philosopher at the piano” has made herself a name with a performance style marked by profound sensitivity and sobriety. Her engagements have led her to make solo appearances at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Liederhalle in Stuttgart, the Philharmonie in Cologne, the Herkulessaal in Munich, the Sala Verdi in Milan, and Radio France Auditorium in Paris. She has been invited to perform at festivals including the...
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Born in Leningrad (now once more Saint Petersburg) into an artistic family of Jewish origin, Dina Ugorskaja started learning the piano when she was young, as well as voice and composition. In 1990, when she was fifteen years old, she became the target of anti-Semitic threats; her family had to leave the Soviet Union abruptly, and they fled together to Germany.
The “philosopher at the piano” has made herself a name with a performance style marked by profound sensitivity and sobriety.
Her engagements have led her to make solo appearances at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Liederhalle in Stuttgart, the Philharmonie in Cologne, the Herkulessaal in Munich, the Sala Verdi in Milan, and Radio France Auditorium in Paris. She has been invited to perform at festivals including the Schubertiade in Feldkirch and the Kassel Music Festival.

Dina Ugorskaja is also passionately committed to chamber music: for instance, ever since her participation at Lars Vogt’s chamber music festival Spannungen in Heimbach, she has formed a duo together with the renowned cellist Tanja Tetzlaff.
2019 marked the 10th anniversary of her fruitful collaboration with the CAvi-Music label. In coproduction with Bavarian Radio (Munich), she has released recordings of Handel suites, late Schumann works, the six last Beethoven sonatas, and both volumes of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier – all of which have been praised by critics.

Regarding her recording of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier sonata, Eleonore Büning wrote in the Frankfurter Allgemeine: The immense Adagio sostenuto, bearing the indication that it is to be played ‘passionately and with much feeling’, is rendered as a sublime, radiant hymn, and one would no longer want to hear it any other way.
Regarding her recording of the Well-Tempered Clavier, Crescendo magazine wrote in October 2016: The listener does not feel directly addressed, but rather as the silent witness of these intimate dialogues between Bach, God, and the universe – thanks to the fact that Dina Ugorskaja always maintains a noble distance that protects the inner fragility of Bach’s musical discourse. […] This is an impressive manifesto for the freedom of the human intellect.” Ugorskaja’s recordings for CAvi-music have been repeatedly nominated for the International Classical Music Awards and for the German Music Critics’ Prize. Her last album with works by Schubert received the ICMA award posthum.
​​​​​​​ Dina Ugorskaja passed away after a long period of illness in September 2019.


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Natalia Prishepenko (violin)

Born in Siberia in 1973, Natalia studied with her mother, Tamara Prishepenko, an eminent pedagogue in the Soviet Union. She had played in all the leading concert halls in the USSR, and had already won important prizes such as those of the Wieniawski International Competition and the All Union Competition. In 1988 Natalia Prishepenko arrived in Lübeck to study at the Musikhochschule with Zakhar Bron. She came to prominence in three of the most prestigious international competitions: the Paganini in 1990, the Tokyo in 1992, and the Reine Elisabeth de Belgique in 1993. Following these successes, her solo career took flight. From 1994 Natalia Prishepenko was primaria of the Artemis Quartet for eighteen years and was traveling the world celebrating success by success. This time is inspired by the...
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Born in Siberia in 1973, Natalia studied with her mother, Tamara Prishepenko, an eminent pedagogue in the Soviet Union. She had played in all the leading concert halls in the USSR, and had already won important prizes such as those of the Wieniawski International Competition and the All Union Competition. In 1988 Natalia Prishepenko arrived in Lübeck to study at the Musikhochschule with Zakhar Bron.

She came to prominence in three of the most prestigious international competitions: the Paganini in 1990, the Tokyo in 1992, and the Reine Elisabeth de Belgique in 1993. Following these successes, her solo career took flight. From 1994 Natalia Prishepenko was primaria of the Artemis Quartet for eighteen years and was traveling the world celebrating success by success.

This time is inspired by the teachings of Walter Levin, the Alban Berg, Juilliard, and Emerson Quartets, Alfred Brendel, and David Geringas; also by the results of a direct contact with composers such as Kurtág, Lachenmann, Lutosławski, Nono, and Ligeti; and not least inspired by a musical exchange with artists like Sabine Meyer, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Juliane Banse, Jörg Widmann, Leif Ove Andsnes, Truls Mørk, Thomas Kakuska, Valentin Erben, and the Alban Berg Quartet. Natalia Prishepenko did leave the quartet in 2012.
Teaching is one of the numerous talents of this artist. As a professor at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden and teacher of numerous masterclasses, Natalia Prishepenko sees this task as a way to continue learning and for personal development. She is also frequently invited to be a jury member at significant competitions for chamber music and violin.
Natalia Prishepenko plays an instrument by Joseph Guarneri, generously loaned to her by Ms.
Barbara Westphal.


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Composer(s)

Sergei Prokofiev

Sergei Prokofiev was born in the countryside of Ukraine. He studied from 1903 at the conservatory of St Petersburg, under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Anatoli Liadov among others. He was educated as a composer, pianist and conductor. Initially, he made a name for himself as a pianist. In 1918, he left the Soviet Union for the USA, but wasn't able to succeed, and he decided to move to Paris in 1920. His concert tours brought him back to the Soviet Union in 1927, who lured him back for good in 1936. Prokofiev died in march 1953, on the same day as Joseph Stalin. Prokofiev is considered as one of the greatest Russian composers of the twentieth century, even though he wasn't a...
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Sergei Prokofiev was born in the countryside of Ukraine. He studied from 1903 at the conservatory of St Petersburg, under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Anatoli Liadov among others. He was educated as a composer, pianist and conductor. Initially, he made a name for himself as a pianist. In 1918, he left the Soviet Union for the USA, but wasn't able to succeed, and he decided to move to Paris in 1920. His concert tours brought him back to the Soviet Union in 1927, who lured him back for good in 1936. Prokofiev died in march 1953, on the same day as Joseph Stalin.
Prokofiev is considered as one of the greatest Russian composers of the twentieth century, even though he wasn't a great innovator. He generally applied the strict classical forms and structures to his works and focused on a classical tonality, with a few exceptions of expressive dissonants and incidental bitonality. Yet, he is only explicitly neoclassicistic in his popular 'Classical Symphony', his first symphony composed in 1917. Many of his works show his humour, while his later works presented his darker, more serious side. One of his best known works is the musical fairytale Peter and the Wolf, which is popular among children all over the world.
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Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitri Shostakovich was a Russian pianist and composer of the Soviet period. He is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. Shostakovich achieved fame in the Soviet Union under the patronage of Soviet chief of staff Mikhail Tukhachevsky, but later had a complex and difficult relationship with the government. Nevertheless, he received accolades and state awards and served in the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR (1947–1962) and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (from 1962 until his death). A polystylist, Shostakovich developed a hybrid voice, combining a variety of different musical techniques into his works. His music is characterized by sharp contrasts, elements of the grotesque, and ambivalent tonality; the composer was also heavily influenced by the...
more
Dmitri Shostakovich was a Russian pianist and composer of the Soviet period. He is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century.
Shostakovich achieved fame in the Soviet Union under the patronage of Soviet chief of staff Mikhail Tukhachevsky, but later had a complex and difficult relationship with the government. Nevertheless, he received accolades and state awards and served in the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR (1947–1962) and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (from 1962 until his death).
A polystylist, Shostakovich developed a hybrid voice, combining a variety of different musical techniques into his works. His music is characterized by sharp contrasts, elements of the grotesque, and ambivalent tonality; the composer was also heavily influenced by the neo-classical style pioneered by Igor Stravinsky, and (especially in his symphonies) by the late Romanticism associated with Gustav Mahler.
Shostakovich's orchestral works include 15 symphonies and six concerti. His chamber output includes 15 string quartets, a piano quintet, two piano trios, and two pieces for string octet. His solo piano works include two sonatas, an early set of preludes, and a later set of 24 preludes and fugues. Other works include three operas, several song cycles, ballets, and a substantial quantity of film music; especially well known is The Second Waltz, Op. 99, music to the film The First Echelon (1955–1956), as well as the suites of music composed for The Gadfly.

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Press

The piano sounds mysterious, almost magical in Ugorskaja's hands, the violin is very clear, sparkling clean and present as well. The whole quality of the two artists is revealed in the sweetness and tenderness of the dim, rippling Andante, which takes off dreamily in perfect artistic symbiosis.
Klassik.com, 14-6-2022

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Johann Fischer
Der habile Violiste
Antoinette Lohmann

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