A captivating recital that dives deep into the stream of Russian Romanticism

Nostalgia for an imaginary world, untroubled by life’s mundane realities, provides the creative thread connecting the works in Alexander Malofeev’s superb debut album. The Moscow-born pianist, resident in Berlin since 2022, extracts a vast expanse of emotions, colours and moods from pieces by four fellow Russians, each of whom died far from home. He enchants with poetic pianism in Medtner’s first cycle of Forgotten Melodies: listen to “Danza rustica”, “Canzona serenata” and “Danza silvestra” and you’ll experience the depth of Malofeev’s personal connection to this music and his ability to bring it to full-blooded life. There’s tremendous muscularity about his Rachmaninoff playing, balanced with infinite subtleties of expression and textural nuances, especially in his impassioned interpretation of the first movement of the Piano Sonata No. 2, and heart-melting beauty in his tender performance of Glazunov’s “La nuit”.