Crossover Media

Home > Projects > Purcell & Mozart > Press Release

Track Listing:

PURCELL A Ground in Gamut, Z_ 645

PURCELL Suite No_ 2 in G Minor, Z_ 661 - I_ Prelude

PURCELL Suite No_ 2 in G Minor, Z_ 661 - II_ Allemande

PURCELL Suite No_ 2 in G Minor, Z_ 661 - III_ Courante

PURCELL Suite No_ 2 in G Minor, Z_ 661 - IV_ Sarabande

PURCELL A New Irish Tune, Z_ 646

PURCELL A New Scotch Tune, Z_ 655

PURCELL Trumpet Tune, ZT 678

PURCELL Suite No_ 4 in A Minor, Z_ 663 - I_ Prelude

PURCELL Suite No_ 4 in A Minor, Z_ 663 - II_ Allemande

PURCELL Suite No_ 4 in A Minor, Z_ 663 - III_ Courante

PURCELL Suite No_ 4 in A Minor, Z_ 663 - IV_ Sarabande

PURCELL Round O, ZT 684

PURCELL Suite No_ 7 in D Minor, Z_ 668 - I_ Allemande

PURCELL Suite No_ 7 in D Minor, Z_ 668 - II_ Courante

PURCELL Suite No_ 7 in D Minor, Z_ 668 - III_ Hornpipe

PURCELL Chaconne in G Minor, ZT 680

MOZART Piano Sonata No_ 13 in B-Flat Major, K_ 333 - I_ Allegro

MOZART Piano Sonata No_ 13 in B-Flat Major, K_ 333 - II_ Andante cantabile

MOZART Piano Sonata No_ 13 in B-Flat Major, K_ 333 - III_ Allegretto grazioso

MOZART Adagio in B Minor, K_ 540

RAMEAU Nouvelles suites de pie`ces de clavecin, Suite in G Major, RCT 6 - VI_ Les sauvages

CHOPIN 24 Preludes, Op_ 28 No_ 15 in D-Flat Major (Raindrop Prelude)

CHOPIN Mazurka No_ 40 in F Minor, Op_ 63 No_ 2_ Lento

RAMEAU Suite in E Minor, RCT 2 - VIII_ Tambourin

J_S_ BACH Prelude in E Minor, BWV 855 (Arr_ Siloti for Piano in B Minor)

Grigory Sokolov :

Purcell & Mozart

The world-renowned pianist performs an uninterrupted selection of keyboard works by Purcell, together with Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 13 in B flat major and Adagio in B minor

His live programme ends with a generous set of encores by J.S. Bach, Chopin and Rameau

“He has a wonderful way of letting the individual lines shine – his sparkling trills and ornaments and his exquisite touch provide a feast for the ears” Der Standard, May 2023

The recital tours of Grigory Sokolov have become the stuff of legend. Even though his programmes are often shrouded in mystery until the last minute, audiences flock to hear him perform, knowing that, whatever the repertoire, they are guaranteed a thrilling musical experience. While Sokolov no longer goes into the studio, since signing with Deutsche Grammophon a decade ago he has curated an acclaimed series of live recordings for the Yellow Label. The latest of these was captured at two recitals he gave in Spain last summer.

Grigory Sokolov – Purcell & Mozart is out today on all digital platforms with a 3-LP version to follow on 11 October. The full recital progamme will be premiered on STAGE+ on 12 October.

The first half of the album, presenting music by the 17th-century English composer Henry Purcell, was recorded at Sokolov’s recital at the Santander International Festival on 18 August 2023, as were the five encores that round off the programme. For his focus on Purcell, a composer new to his public performances, the artist wove together an uninterrupted sequence made up of three minor-key suites from A Choice Collection of Lessons for the Harpsichord or Spinnet, published a year after Purcell’s death, and six other short keyboard works.

With clarity of articulation and graceful ornamentation, Sokolov uses the versatility of the grand piano to bring out hidden nuances of the poised, elegant suites, which reveal how Purcell adapted the French and Italian styles of his day to create his own personal idiom. Then, as noted by Bachtrack in its review of the Aix-en-Provence recital, the pianist captures the different moods of the other pieces to perfection. “Ground in Gamut is carefree and lighthearted. In the Irish and Scotch Tunes the piano lives and laughs, by turns bucolic and tenderly melancholy, while Sokolov’s dynamic touch brings nobility and a sense of momentum to the Trumpet Tune.”

The second half of the programme, recorded two days earlier in San Sebastián, as part of the city’s Quincena Musical festival, consists of two works by Mozart. Sokolov creates eloquent contrasts in the Piano Sonata in B flat major, K 333, whose predominantly sunny nature is at times interrupted by moments of agitation, darkness and drama, notably in the finale, which includes a concerto-style cadenza.

He ends the programme proper of his recital with the Adagio in B minor, K 540, written in 1788, when Mozart was at the height of his compositional powers. A contemporary of the opera Don Giovanni, it is a sombre, expressive masterpiece, and Sokolov’s searching interpretation of its ambiguities bring the second half to a quiet, questioning conclusion.

A generous array of encores form a key aspect of the Sokolov recital ritual. On this occasion, he frames Chopin’s Prelude, Op. 28 No. 15 “Raindrop” and Mazurka in F minor with music by Rameau, before ending with one of the Preludes from J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier (as arranged in the key of B minor by Siloti) and earning one final enthusiastic ovation from the audience.

He will begin touring the new season’s repertoire, yet to be revealed, in Stockholm on 27 October, with further dates in Dortmund, Lucerne, Bologna, Turin, Warsaw, Luxembourg and Brussels before the end of the year.