Schubert: Piano Sonata D.959 & Minuets D. 334, D. 335, D. 600 Arcadi Volodos

• Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828): Piano Sonata No. 20 in A Major, D. 959:
• 1Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 20 in A Major, D. 959: I. Allegro15:35
• 2Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 20 in A Major, D. 959: II. Andantino08:55
• 3Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 20 in A Major, D. 959: III. Scherzo - Allegro Vivace05:25
• 4Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 20 in A Major, D. 959: IV. Rondo - Allegretto11:48
• Minuet in A major, D. 334:
• 5Schubert: Minuet in A major, D. 33403:13
• Minuet in E Major, D. 335:
• 6Schubert: Minuet in E Major, D. 33503:55
• Minuet in C-Sharp Minor, D. 600 with Trio in E Major, D. 610:
• 7Schubert: Minuet in C-Sharp Minor, D. 600 with Trio in E Major, D. 61006:52
• Total Runtime55:43

Info for Schubert: Piano Sonata D.959 & Minuets D. 334, D. 335, D. 600

Concert performances by Arcadi Volodos are always perceived as extraordinary events. Studio recordings, which for him represent the artistic sum of his engagement with the respective works, are as well - but they are much rarer. Barely three years after his highly acclaimed recording of late piano works by Johannes Brahms and seventeen years after the Russian pianist, who has long lived in Spain, first tackled Franz Schubert on record, he now presents his interpretation of the A major Sonata D 959 on Sony Classical. Arcadi Volodos has played the sonata in concert many times in recent years and has been celebrated by the public and the press. For example, the Wiener Standard wrote after a recital, "When Arcadi Volodos plays Schubert, time stands still." But with the recording in the studio, his occupation with this composition is complete. So if you want to hear Arcadi Volodos play Schubert's A major Sonata, you can't avoid this album.

Volodos rose to become a much sought-after performer after his spectacular breakthrough in 1996. "Crown prince of the piano" and "heir to the great Vladimir Horowitz," some raved. The debut album "Piano Transcriptions" and the legendary recital recording "Live at Carnegie Hall," like almost all other recordings, won awards worldwide. Performances with orchestras ranging from the Berlin Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orkest Amsterdam to major orchestras in London, New York and Boston established his reputation as one of the definitive pianists of his generation.

Arcadi Volodos, piano

Arcadi Volodos
Acclaimed as a “keyboard genius”, Arcadi Volodos is without a doubt one of the world’s finest and most prominent pianists. His boundless virtuosity along with his unique sense of phrasing, colour and poetry have made him an ideal “narrator” of Romantic musical tales. In his hands, a simple Baroque melody can be as fascinating as a performance of Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto, and his visions of Schubert’s glimpses into the abyss are as striking as his flights into the mystical realms of Liszt. Born in St. Petersburg in 1972, Volodos first studied voice and conducting and did not begin serious training at the piano until 1987 at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He pursued his studies further at the Moscow Conservatory with Galina Egiazarova, then in Paris and Madrid.

Since his New York debut in 1996, Arcadi Volodos has performed throughout the world in recital with many of the most eminent orchestras and conductors, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony and New York Philharmonic, led by, among others, Myung-Whun Chung, Lorin Maazel, Valery Gergiev, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Semyon Bychkov and Riccardo Chailly. Volodos regularly appears in recitals at the Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna’s Musikverein and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris as well as in all the other important music centres in Europe and Asia. Since his highly acclaimed debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2002, he has been invited to return there every year.

Engagements in the seasons 2010/11 and 2011/12 included recitals in Korea, London, Zurich, Vienna, Madrid, St. Petersburg, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Brussels, Munich, at the Ruhr Klavierfestival, the Beethovenfest Bonn, the festival in La Roque d’Antheron and the Salzburg Festival as well as concerts with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Berlin Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra and Seoul Philharmonic. In January 2012 Volodos returned to Asia, after an absence of eight years, presenting recitals and concerts in Seoul and Beijing.

Highlights in the season 2012/2013 include, among others, recitals in Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Baden-Baden, Dortmund, Leipzig and Vienna as well as concerts with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Munich Philharmonic and Oslo Philharmonic orchestras.

The beginning of the 2013/2014 season sees concerts with the Gewandhausorchester and Riccardo Chailly in Leipzig, Vienna, London and Paris, as well as recitals in major cities across Europe.

Since his now historic Carnegie Hall recital debut in 1998 Sony Classical has issued a series of acclaimed CDs featuring Arcadi Volodos’ interpretations of Schubert sonatas, Rachmaninoff solo pieces and transcriptions as well as live performances with the Berlin Philharmonic of Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto, under James Levine, and Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, under Seiji Ozawa. The 2007 release “Volodos plays Liszt” was named an “Editor’s Choice” by Gramophone magazine (“Liszt playing of uncommon, profound insight”), singled out as a Diapason d’Or and honoured with the annual ECHO-Klassik Award. In 2010 his Musikverein recital from the previous year was released on CD and DVD to rapturous international critical acclaim.

In the last few years, Arcadi Volodos has regularly played works by the Catalonian composer Federico Mompou in his recitals and devoted now his new solo CD to this remarkable musical personality. The album “Volodos plays Mompou” was released in 2013 by Sony Classical.

Booklet for Schubert: Piano Sonata D.959 & Minuets D. 334, D. 335, D. 600