025 CD / Tschaikowsky: Die Jahreszeiten op. 37

2 reviews for 025 CD / Tschaikowsky: Die Jahreszeiten op. 37

1. Stuttgarter Nachrichten – 1. January 1995

   A fixed star shines by itself.
   Unaffected by the day's excitements, Evgeni Koroliov follows his own path. He is not a star in the pianist firmament as far as the media are concerned, but to those who have heard him and appreciate his recordings, he appears in his quiet greatness as a fixed star — a very distant, self-luminous celestial body that seems firmly anchored above, yet in reality slowly changes its position.
   Koroliov is no showman and doesn’t play in the league of self-promoters — someone like him is hard to market. As someone who makes little fuss about himself or his abilities, he was fortunate to encounter the right producer and sound engineer. None of the industry’s big moguls wanted to bring him on board — it was a stroke of luck that he met Andreas Spreer, founder of the Stuttgart-based Tacet label and a meticulous craftsman at the microphone. Spreer is committed to the aesthetics of unadulterated sound. Nothing is glossed over or manipulated in any way. His recordings remain excellent and incomparable, especially the Prokofiev interpretations (“Visions fugitives” Op. 22, “Sarcasms” Op. 17, and Sonata No. 5 Op. 38, Tacet 32), as well as the Schubert CD featuring the great B-flat major sonata and the Moments Musicaux (D 780, Tacet 46), shaped entirely from the music’s closeness to death. Also remarkable is his rendition of Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons (Tacet 25), a cycle not easily accessible to everyone and rarely recorded.
   And Bach, of course. Bach is the central sun in the life of pianist and piano professor Evgeni Koroliov (53), who lives in Hamburg. The Art of Fugue (Tacet 13) — one of the most intriguingly enigmatic works in the history of music in the best sense. Now, after years of hesitation and doubt, he has completed the recording of all 48 Preludes and Fugues of The Well-Tempered Clavier with the release of the second volume (Tacet 93 and 104). Live recordings from concerts of the International Bach Academy Stuttgart, released on Haussier Classics, include the Goldberg Variations as well as two additional Bach CDs.
   His Bach playing strikes a balance between intellect and emotion; it leans into the melody while delivering powerful, chordal accents. A fiery spirit turns inward in reflection. Koroliov doesn’t smooth out the edges — he remains sharply alert. In doing so, he distances himself as much from the subtly romanticized interpretations of Sviatoslav Richter as from the unorthodox exegesis of Glenn Gould. (…)
   Jürgen Holwein

2. Frankfurter Rundschau – 1. January 1993

   Since Sviatoslav Richter’s individual portrayal of the May Nights and Igor Shukov’s almost cat-like waltzing steps in the December chapter, I have not heard these calendar pieces — with their truly noble salon affinities — rendered with such artful simplicity.