Alexei Volodin

Fairy tale atmosphere pervades an all-Russian musical evening graced by Alexei Volodin’s supreme technique. Nikolai Medtner’s Fairy Tales (Skazki) have a sweeping grandeur initially reminiscent of Rachmaninov, but which possess harmonic touches that are all Medtner’s own. Prokofiev’s single-movement Third Sonata is a short, energetic work written in 1917, using themes he had composed while a student a decade earlier. Volodin closes his programme with Rachmaninov’s first Piano Sonata – the lesser-known of the composer’s two works in the genre. It’s a work of swirling textures and powerful mood changes, which Rachmaninov originally planned as a programmatic sonata based on the Faust legend. Although he seems to have abandoned that idea, traces of this initial intention can still be heard in the tumultuous music.

Queen Elizabeth Hall