Forgotten Melodies: Glinka, Glazunov, Rachmaninov, Medtner

Hailed by Der Standard as "a world piano revolution," Malofeev turns to works by Glinka, Glazunov, Rachmaninov, and Medtner - four Russian composers whose music is deeply marked by nostalgia and the experience of exile. Centred around Medtner's Forgotten Melodies and Rachmaninov's Second Piano Sonata, the album highlights Malofeev's remarkable virtuosity and poetic sensitivity, reaffirming his place as one of the most compelling pianists of his generation.

Born in Moscow in 2001, Alexander Malofeev trained at the Gnessin Special School and the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. He first gained international attention in 2014 when, at just thirteen, he won the junior division of the International Tchaikovsky Competition. Now based in Berlin, Malofeev sees this recording as a way of connecting his heritage with the present. Berlin, he notes, was once home to Glinka, Glazunov and Medtner - three of the composers featured on the album. For Forgotten Melodies, he chose four Russian-born composers who all spent their final years far from home: Glazunov in Paris, Glinka in Berlin, Rachmaninov in Beverly Hills, and Medtner in London. Beyond the shared theme of exile, what fascinates Malofeev most is their common sense of nostalgia - a longing, he says, for a dreamlike world that never truly existed.

The album centres on Medtner's Forgotten Melodies and Rachmaninov's Second Piano Sonata. Malofeev performs the composer's later, more concise revision of the sonata, which he feels sits closer in spirit to Medtner. Rachmaninov, he adds, has been a lifelong inspiration: "His freedom, his spirit, his hands, his genius." Still in his early twenties, critics have called him a "Russian genius," a "piano world revolution," and noted the magnetic, singing quality of his sound - all pointing to an artist of rare and remarkable promise.