Nikolai Lugansky is already one of the finest of living pianists. He studied extensively with Tatiana Nikolaeva in Moscow. Her view was that Nikolai Lugansky would be "The Next One" in a long line of great Russian pianists.
In 1988, Lugansky won the First Prize at the All-Union Competition in Tbilisi, and the Silver Medal at the 8th International Bach Competition in Leipzig. In 1990 he won Second Prize at the Rachmaninov Competition in Moscow. In 1992, he was awarded a special prize, "Best pianist", at the International Summer Academy "Mozarteum" in Salzburg, Austria. And in 1994, Lugansky won the top prize awarded at the Tchaikovsky Piano Competition.
This quote from a Russian newspaper about Lugansky's final round performance quite mirrors my own reaction on first hearing him play, "It was like getting sunstroke, a musical shock. Nobody could imagine that the soul of this unpretentious, modest young man, with his ascetic, but also poetic appearance, held such a volcano inside with inspired and resolute control."
As an interpreter of
Chopin
, Nikolai Lugansky has few equals among the young pianists of today. The combination of his supreme technique and his innate musicianship result in playing that can be described as effortless both as to his control and his interpretation. Because he has such technical mastery, he can create subtly stunning effects within the texture of the music without calling attention to them, without interfering with the line and shape of his beautiful and poetic conceptions. His astonishing performance of the Chopin Etude Op 25 n°6 is a prime example. In the midst of the technical challenges of this piece, he manages to give such a delicate line to the secondary theme with subtle but dramatic crescendos and diminuendos the likes of which I have never heard in this music.
Nikolai Lugansky also has a marvelous way with
Rachmaninov
as you will hear. His playing is robust, his line is faultless, his musicality impeccable.
On this page he plays music by Bach, Mozart, Liszt, Brahms and Debussy, as well as his own transcriptions of four scenes from Wagner's Götterdämmerung.
So is he the "Next One" as Nikolaeva predicted he would be? See if you agree.
Bach Italian Concerto BWV 971 Recorded c.1991
i (without tempo indication)
ii Andante
iii Presto
Mozart Piano Concerto n°21 in C Major K 467 unidentified conductor and Russian Orchestra
i Allegro maestoso (Part 1)
i Allegro maestoso (Part 2)
ii Andante
iii Allegro vivace assai
n°5 in B flat Major "Feux Follets"
>n°10 in F minor Allegro agitato molto
n°12 in B flat minor "Chasse-neige"
Brahms Intermezzo in A Major Op 118 n°2
Debussy Arabesque n°1
Wagner/Lugansky Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods)
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