Dies irae (Liszt · Rachmaninoff)

Description

With Liszt's 'Totentanz', which saw him triumph at the 2015 Tchaikovsky Competition, and the 'Spanish Rhapsody' (adapted for piano and string orchestra by his mentor Petukhov) on one side, and Rachmaninoff's 'Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini' — his composer of choice — on the other, Dmitry Masleev offers for this new album a highly personal diptych, thoroughly permeated by the Dies irae theme. The pianist serves these formidable pages with a refined, sober, and elegant touch, virtuosity giving way entirely to sensuality and a crystal-clear lyricism. The album closes with the Adagio from Marcello's Oboe Concerto, arranged for keyboard by Bach, a kind of vision of paradise after the inferno.