Thank you so much for uploading this. Fantastic recording! Zhukov offers truly passionate, spontaneous and inspired pianism: "Durchaus fantastisch und leidenschaftlich". In general, Zhukov deserves much more attention. He was clearly one of the greatest!!!!
Wikipedia: Igor Mikhaylovich Zhukov (31 August 1936 - 26 January 2018) was a Russian pianist, conductor and sound engineer. Zhukov was born in Nizhny Novgorod in 1936 but his family moved to Moscow in the following year. Four years later, they were evacuated to Vyatka (then known as Kirov) as a result of the Second World War. After the war, they returned to Moscow, where Zhukov studied at the Conservatory in 1955, studying first with Emil Gilels and then, in 1955, with Heinrich Neuhaus. He graduated in 1960, having won second prize in the Long-Thibaud Piano Competition in Paris. Apart from a career as a pianist, Zhukov also conducted his own ensemble, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra until his retirement from conducting in 1994, and was the pianist of the long-running Zhukov Piano Trio which was founded in 1963 and continued performing until 1980. (The other members were the violinist Grigory Feighin and cellist Valentin Feighin.) The trio was noted for its "Historic Concerts" which featured repertoire spanning the 17th to the 20th centuries. Zhukov made recordings on the Melodiya/CBS label, among others (e.g. the complete Scriabin sonatas). Zhukov also had a passionate interest in recording, and said of himself "I'm the best pianist among recording engineers, and the best recording engineer among pianists." Sources Rueger, Christoph. The multiple talents of Igor Zhukov. Essay included with The Russian Piano School Vol 16: Igor Zhukov, Melodia CD 74321 332142, 1996.
Heard yesterday for the first time in streaming, and I was going to ask You to made this available on YT ... Such a precious, inspiring, and inspired reading. great ... Thank You
Wonderful. But I disagree. I'm happy to disagree. Zhukov's "decisionism" is what makes him endlessly interesting to listen to. I've just listened to a Chopin Bb Sonata by him where he pulls the whole piece down into a much smaller scale, and explores it as exactly that. It's wonderful. His decisions make him a compelling Scriabin interpreter: he decides that this, out of 3 or 4 staves, is how it's going to be, what is going to be emphasised, and explores and explains that. But with this piece I don't altogether like it. In the 1st movement he does extraordinary things - which I couldn't even try to do, with my technique; he de-emphasises passages other pianists would show off with, making passing flourishes of them. And in that movement he makes something completely amazing, which I've never heard anyone else even dare to attempt. (That's definitely the strongest movement, though, in the original text). In the 2nd, though, there's an obtrusive _haste_. The eery relentnessness of the dotted passages, with their weird "wrongly"-progressing basslines, gets lost in the hurry to get to the next bit. Nothing wrong, of course, with the final, terrifying-to-a-pianist page, because Zhukov knows exactly where he is, even in those leaps. But it's unsatisfying, because what happened in the interim was almost too easy - something I've never thought about Zhukov before. Zhukov's great virtue is that he never makes empty pomp out of music: but there's a humour in this 2nd movement which needs a heavy, metronomic German pomposity as a foundation to its sinister elements. Equally with the 3rd. There's so much to wonder at. But _why_ hurry the last few notes of a sung phrase, as if it was in a hurry to get on to something better? It's an odd performance by Zhukov, who can be strict and economical in everything - rubato, pedalling, dynamics, sound: here in a movement which needs a steady tempo like no other, his rubato decisions are really weird. I know I learned piano in a different, more strict-tempo era: I love listening to artists like Zhukov who either learned in a different tradition or mess with tempo in a way that makes perfect sense. But in this 3rd movement I just can't see this amount of rubato working. I'll stick to the 1st movement, which is really extraordinary.
I liked the first movement but I can't understand how he plays the 3rd movement so fast. He sucks all the beauty out of the piece. The 3rd movement is one of the most beautiful pieces in the piano repertoire. Maybe he was late for a cab. I just don't get it. Check out Yeol Eum Son Fantasie on RU-vid as it is sublime.
