Visiting Rachmaninoff: Chopin Variations - Romances Alexander Melnikov & Julia Lezhneva

• Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 - 1943): Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22:
• 1 Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22: Theme. Largo 01:16
• 2 Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22: Var. I. Moderato 00:29
• 3 Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22: Var. II. Allegro 00:14
• 4 Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22: Var. III. 00:16
• 5 Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22: Var. IV. 00:49
• 6 Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22: Var. V. Meno mosso 00:21
• 7 Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22: Var. VI. Meno mosso 00:46
• 8 Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22: Var. VII. Allegro 00:15
• 9 Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22: Var. VIII. 00:18
• 10 Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22: Var. IX. 00:18
• 11 Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22: Var. X. Più vivo 00:28
• 12 Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22: Var. XI. Lento 01:03
• 13 Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22: Var. XII. Moderato 01:33
• 14 Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22: Var. XIII. Largo 00:55
• 15 Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22: Var. XIV. Moderato 01:10
• 16 Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22: Var. XV. Allegro scherzando 01:19
• 17 Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22: Var. XVI. Lento 00:59
• 18 Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22: Var. XVII. Grave 01:09
• 19 Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22: Var. XVIII. Più mosso 00:41
• 20 Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22: Var. XIX. Allegro vivace 01:15
• 21 Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22: Var. XX. Presto 01:03
• 22 Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22: Var. XXI. Andante - Più vivo 02:18
• 23 Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22: Var. XXII. Maestoso - Meno mosso 03:59
• 15 Romances, Op. 26:
• 24 Rachmaninoff: 15 Romances, Op. 26: No. 3, We shall rest 02:22
• 25 Rachmaninoff: 15 Romances, Op. 26: No. 6, Christ is risen 02:43
• 26 Rachmaninoff: 15 Romances, Op. 26: No. 9, Again I am alone 01:55
• 27 Rachmaninoff: 15 Romances, Op. 26: No. 10, Before my window 01:42
• 28 Rachmaninoff: 15 Romances, Op. 26: No. 12, The night is mournful 02:12
• 29 Rachmaninoff: 15 Romances, Op. 26: No. 14, The ring 02:35
• 12 Romances, Op. 21:
• 30 Rachmaninoff: 12 Romances, Op. 21: No. 3, Twilight 02:04
• 31 Rachmaninoff: 12 Romances, Op. 21: No. 4, They answered 01:48
• 32 Rachmaninoff: 12 Romances, Op. 21: No. 5, Lilacs 01:56
• 33 Rachmaninoff: 12 Romances, Op. 21: No. 6, Fragment from A. Musset 02:06
• 34 Rachmaninoff: 12 Romances, Op. 21: No. 7, Here it's so fine 01:54
• 35 Rachmaninoff: 12 Romances, Op. 21: No. 8, On the death of a siskin 02:17
• 36 Rachmaninoff: 12 Romances, Op. 21: No. 9, Melody 03:03
• 37 Rachmaninoff: 12 Romances, Op. 21: No. 10, Before the icon 03:44
• 38 Rachmaninoff: 12 Romances, Op. 21: No. 11, No prophet, I 01:22
• 39 Rachmaninoff: 12 Romances, Op. 21: No. 12, Sorrow in springtime 01:48
• 14 Romances, Op. 34:
• 40 Rachmaninoff: 14 Romances, Op. 34: No. 3, The storm 02:35
• 41 Rachmaninoff: 14 Romances, Op. 34: No. 4, The migrant wind 02:59
• 42 Rachmaninoff: 14 Romances, Op. 34: No. 5, Arion 03:00
• 43 Rachmaninoff: 14 Romances, Op. 34: No. 7, It cannot be! 01:53
• 44 Rachmaninoff: 14 Romances, Op. 34: No. 8, Music 02:12
• 45 Rachmaninoff: 14 Romances, Op. 34: No. 12, What happiness 02:17
• Total Runtime 01:13:21

Info for Visiting Rachmaninoff: Chopin Variations - Romances

Alexander Melnikov returns to Rachmaninoff with an exploration of the poetic world of the Variations on a Theme by Chopin. He travelled to Lake Lucerne to record this album on the master’s own piano at Villa Senar, Rachmaninoff’s last summer home. To accompany this eminently lyrical music, he joins forces with the luminous soprano of Julia Lezhneva and invites us to discover some of the Russian composer’s most beautiful songs from this period of intense creative ferment.

Julia Lezhneva, Sopran
Alexander Melnikov, Steinway grand piano

Alexander Melnikov
completed his studies at the Moscow Conservatory under Lev Naumov. His most formative musical moments in Moscow include an early encounter with Svjatoslav Richter, who thereafter regularly invited him to festivals in Russia and France. He was awarded important prizes at eminent competitions such as the International Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau (1989) and the Concours Musical Reine Elisabeth in Brussels (1991).

Known for his often unusual musical and programmatic decisions, Alexander Melnikov developed his career-long interest in historically informed performance practice early on. His major influences in this field include Andreas Staier and Alexei Lubimov. Melnikov performs regularly with distinguished period ensembles including the Freiburger Barockorchester, Musica Aeterna and Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.

As a soloist, Alexander Melnikov has performed with orchestras including the Koninklijk Concertgebouw Orkest Amsterdam, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Philadelphia Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, HR-Sinfonieorchester, Munich Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic and BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, under conductors such as Mikhail Pletnev, Teodor Currentzis, Charles Dutoit, Paavo Järvi, Thomas Dausgaard, Maxim Emelyanychev and Vladimir Jurowski.

Together with Andreas Staier, Alexander Melnikov recorded a unique all-Schubert programme of four-hand pieces, which they have also performed in concert. An essential part of Melnikov’s work is intensive chamber music collaboration with partners including cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras.

Alexander Melnikov’s association with the label harmonia mundi arose through his regular recital partner, violinist Isabelle Faust, and in 2010 their complete recording of the Beethoven sonatas for violin and piano won a Gramophone Award. This album, which has become a landmark recording for these works, was also nominated for a Grammy. Their most recent releases feature Brahms and Mozart sonatas for violin and piano.

Melnikov’s recording of the Preludes and Fugues by Shostakovich was awarded the BBC Music Magazine Award, Choc de classica and the Jahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. In 2011, it was also named by the BBC Music Magazine as one of the "50 Greatest Recordings of All Time. " Additionally, his discography features works by Brahms, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich and Scriabin. Along with Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Pablo Heras-Casado and the Freiburger Barockorchester, Melnikov recorded a trilogy of albums featuring the Schumann Concertos and Trios (published in 2015-16) and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto (2021). Other releases include a complete recording of Prokofiev’s piano sonatas , "Four Pieces, Four Pianos", released in 2018 and highly acclaimed by critics and following this in 2023 his new album "Fantasie – Seven Composers Seven Keyboards" in which he plays the pieces on the instruments of the time. In addition to this solo album, the CD with Schumann's Piano Quartet, Op. 47 and Piano Quintet, Op. 44 was released at the end of 2023, on which Melnikov can be heard together with Isabelle Faust, Anne Katharina Schreiber, Antoine Tamestit and Jean-Guihen Queyras.

Highlights of the 2024/25 season will be Alexander Melnikov's residency at the Konzerthaus Wien with a solo programme, a chamber music concert and a concert with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Christoph Eschenbach. Concert tours take him to Japan, America and Europe, where he performs with renowned orchestras such as the Munich Philharmonic, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Orquestra Gulbenkian, the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, the Gürzenich Orchestra, the Kammerakademie Potsdam, the Basel Chamber Orchestra and the Australian Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Ivor Bolton, Maxim Emelyanychev, Hannu Lintu, Daniel Cohen, Anja Bihlmaier and Giovanni Antonini.

Alexander Melnikov continues his chamber music work in a wide variety of formations with partners such as Isabelle Faust, Antoine Tamestit, Alexei Lubimov, Olga Pashchenko, Mikhail Shilyaev and Jean-Guihen Queyras and performs with these formations in Helsinki, Copenhagen, Berlin, Lyon, Amsterdam, Bonn, Vancouver, Seattle, and London, among others.

Solo recitals in the Berlin Philharmonie, the Cologne Philharmonie, the Auditorium de Lyon, in Prague, Madrid, the Philia Hall Yokohama and the Toppan Hall in Tokyo round off Alexander Melnikov's season.

Julia Lezhneva
"... sublime cantilenas with ornaments woven in like silver threads, trampoline-springing staccati and evenly swinging trills ... Even more haunting, how she knew how to use the messa di voce, the rising and falling of the tone, as an expression of emotional tremor." (FAZ, May 2021) The Süddeutsche Zeitung sees her as a "...magician: she can almost make her voice disappear, performing the most ludicrous vocal feats and garland fireworks".

Julia Lezhneva's international career began with a bang when she caused a sensation in 2010 at the Classical Brit Awards in London's Royal Albert Hall with Rossini's Fra il padre at the invitation of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.

Just a decade later, she is discovering a broad repertoire with various orchestras, conductors, operas and oratorios. She made her highly successful debuts with the Berliner Philharmoniker in October 2019 and at the Musikverein Vienna in December 2019. She returned to the Mozartwoche Salzburg in January 2020, this time under Sir András Schiff in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro; in January 2023 she sang in Don Giovanni. In June 2023, she appeared for the first time at La Scala in Milan in Porpora's Carlo il Calvo.

In December 2020, she made her celebrated debut with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Herbert Blomstedt. Her debuts with the LA Philharmonic and Atlanta Symphony are on her calendar for the 2024/25 season.

Orchestras such as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB), the Orquestra Nacional de España, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, the Kaohsiung Philharmonic and the Seoul Philharmonic regularly invite Julia Lezhneva and she regularly works with renowned conductors such as Adam Fischer, Giovanni Antonini, Herbert Blomstedt, Emmanuelle Haïm, Paavo Järvi, Vladimir Jurowski and Andrea Marcon.

Julia Lezhneva is a welcome guest at the Salzburg Festival, the Schwetzingen Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Lucerne Festival, the Dubrovnik Festival, the Festival de la Vézère, the Sion Festival, the Nordland Music Festival and at Bayreuth Baroque.

Julia Lezhneva's debut in Handel's Alcina (Morgana) at the Hamburg State Opera in September 2018 was celebrated to great acclaim and she was immediately invited back for Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia and further performances of Alcina. In 2021, she sang the role of Poppea in a new production of Handel's Agrippina (stage director: by Barrie Kosky), in 2022 Zerlina in Don Giovanni and in May 2024 she sang Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro. Before that, she made her debut at the Liceo in Barcelona in March 2024 in a staged performance of Handel's Messiah.

In winter 2019, she made her debut in Bach's Christmas Oratorio (conducted by Vladimir Jurowski); in the same season, she sang in Handel's Messiah and La Resurrezione, Vivaldi's Juditha triumphans; as well as Haydn's Creation and Mahler's Symphony No. 4. In October 2024 appeared for the first time with Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir in Handel's Esther.

Born in 1989 in a family of geophysicists on Sakhalin Island off the Pacific Coast of Russia, Ms. Lezhneva began playing piano and singing at the age of five. She graduated from the Gretchaninov Music School and continued her vocal and piano studies at the Moscow Conservatory Academic Music College. At 17 she came to international attention as the winner of the Elena Obraztsova Opera Singers Competition, and was invited to share the stage with Juan Diego Flórez at the opening of the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro in the following year. In 2009, she won first prize at the Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition in Helsinki and the following year took first prize at the Paris International Opera Competition, as the youngest contestant in each competition’s history. Opernwelt magazine named her “Young Singer of the Year” in 2011 for her debut at La Monnaie in Brussels. The following year she performed at the Victoires de la Musique Classique in Paris.

Julia Lezhneva’s teachers and mentors include Dennis O’Neill, Yvonne Kenny, Elena Obraztsova, Alberto Zedda, Richard Bonynge and Thomas Quasthoff.

Booklet for Visiting Rachmaninoff: Chopin Variations - Romances