# Yevgeny Sudbin



## Guest

I know he has several fans on this site who will enjoy this video, and perhaps he'll pick up a few new ones.


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## Pugg

Kontrapunctus said:


> I know he has several fans on this site who will enjoy this video, and perhaps he'll pick up a few new ones.


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## Ilarion

Pugg said:


> ​


And Rachmaninoff was keen on Scarlatti as a part of daily piano exercises, according to the Bertenson and Leyda tome on Rachmaninoff.


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## Guest

I was so pleased to hear that he has a new disc of Scarlatti coming out.


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## CDs

He is one of my favorite pianists. Love his Scarlatti CDs on BIS.


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## Rogerx

His Beethoven recordings are good, but not one would call heavenly.


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## Josquin13

His Scarlatti is indeed excellent. It puts to rest any argument in my mind that pianists can't play Scarlatti with the same (unbelievably) rapid fire succession of notes that you find in the harpsichord recordings of Pierre Hantai, for example (which is essential to Scarlatti, IMO). However, I wonder if pianist Dubravka Tomsic, who like Sudbin has incredibly quick, accurate fingers, doesn't find a greater human dimension in this music?: 




With such high profile Russian pianists today like Sudbin, Melnikov, & (the largely German trained) Levit, it seems that the old Soviet system of pianism has undergone a significant change in recent decades--that is, since the days of Horowitz, Richter, Gilels, Berman, Neuhaus, Sofronitsky, Nikolayeva, etc.. Their piano touch is lighter, their fingering more nimble, quick, and cleaner (more Baroque-like in Levit's case), and their projection is smaller (while their pianos are generally more in tune...). They also don't slow the music down like the older Russian pianists often did, in an attempt to find a greater profundity (as in Schubert, for example). Overall, I'd say Russian pianism is noticeably less romantic than it used to be. I admit I've been less enthusiastic about Sudbin's award winning Scriabin (& Liszt) than others: preferring the older Russian pianists, such as Horowitz, Sofronitsky, Richter & Gilels in this music: especially when I compare Horowitz & Sudbin in Scriabin's Op. 8 No. 12 Etude (a favorite of mine). To my ears, there's a whole world in this Etude that Horowitz understands more deeply:






The following 1985 DG LP contains my favorite Horowitz rendition of the Scriabin Etude (which begins at 45:20), as it greatly helps to hear Horowitz's unique piano sound in Scriabin recorded in state of the art audiophile sound, as opposed to his old Columbia LPs:











However, the following live Sudbin recording of Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit is remarkable: 




Even if Ivo Pogorelich--a product of the older Soviet system--achieves a greater size and projection in this music. Indeed, as fine as Sudbin's Ravel is, for me, I feel that Pogorelich plays Gaspard de la Nuit with greater verve & imagination (if with less sensitivity?). Anyone else agree, disagree?:


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## Guest

I think Denis Matsuev and Nikolay Khozyainov, to name two, try to maintain the older Russian approach.

For year, Pogorelich has been my reference for "Gaspard," but I also like Bertrand Chamayou, Lucas Debargue, and Sudbin.


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