Press
Disc of the Week in BBC Radio 3's CD Review Programme:
“
You may not have encountered Yuri Paterson-Olenich before, but if you get the chance to hear him perform, make the most of it – judging by the qualities on show in this Rachmaninov recital, I suspect it'll make for a memorable live encounter.
***
Paterson-Olenich is a Brit, born in Brighton, and who studied in Moscow. Even without knowing that, there's something inescapably Russian about the way he plays Rachmaninov; the free-flowing romanticism, the surging tempos, and the waves of colour that can be almost overwhelming in the First Sonata. This is Rachmaninov in Dresden in 1907, escaping the revolutionary upheaval at home in Russia, and perhaps encompassing some of that personal and political turbulence in a work composed on a truly symphonic scale. Although Rachmaninov never managed to realise his plans to turn the sonata into a fully-fledged symphony (it proved too "purely pianistic" to orchestrate, he told a friend), it needs a player who can tap into an orchestral palette to encompass its epic breadth, from the deceptively simple brooding opening to the cascades of bells in the coda.
***
Paterson-Olenich muses in his notes that it might be this orchestral style of writing that prevents more pianists from scaling its heights. Or perhaps it's a realisation that they can't inhabit the score in quite the way he does, with a sense of the essential Russian-ness of the music, the darkness and melancholy at the heart of so much of it, despite the glowing magnificence of the more extrovert pages.
***
The same applies to the op. 39, Etudes-Tableaux. After the sprawl of the sonata, these aren't mere miniatures; they're more like fiercely-focused microcosms, intensified by being presented and played as they are here. It's not the finest recorded piano sound I've ever heard – a little restricted and boxy when you're hoping for something that puts a halo around the sound rather than pulling you inside it – but you're over that swiftly as the playing and music overwhelm any reservations. I missed Paterson-Olenich's Scriabin disc for the same label, but after his Rachmaninov recital I really need to hear it.
***
Paterson-Olenich is a Brit, born in Brighton, and who studied in Moscow. Even without knowing that, there's something inescapably Russian about the way he plays Rachmaninov; the free-flowing romanticism, the surging tempos, and the waves of colour that can be almost overwhelming in the First Sonata. This is Rachmaninov in Dresden in 1907, escaping the revolutionary upheaval at home in Russia, and perhaps encompassing some of that personal and political turbulence in a work composed on a truly symphonic scale. Although Rachmaninov never managed to realise his plans to turn the sonata into a fully-fledged symphony (it proved too "purely pianistic" to orchestrate, he told a friend), it needs a player who can tap into an orchestral palette to encompass its epic breadth, from the deceptively simple brooding opening to the cascades of bells in the coda.
***
Paterson-Olenich muses in his notes that it might be this orchestral style of writing that prevents more pianists from scaling its heights. Or perhaps it's a realisation that they can't inhabit the score in quite the way he does, with a sense of the essential Russian-ness of the music, the darkness and melancholy at the heart of so much of it, despite the glowing magnificence of the more extrovert pages.
***
The same applies to the op. 39, Etudes-Tableaux. After the sprawl of the sonata, these aren't mere miniatures; they're more like fiercely-focused microcosms, intensified by being presented and played as they are here. It's not the finest recorded piano sound I've ever heard – a little restricted and boxy when you're hoping for something that puts a halo around the sound rather than pulling you inside it – but you're over that swiftly as the playing and music overwhelm any reservations. I missed Paterson-Olenich's Scriabin disc for the same label, but after his Rachmaninov recital I really need to hear it.
“
Having given us a Scriabin recording of rare commitment, Yuri Paterson-Olenich continues with a two-disc Rachmaninov set of even greater poetic force and conviction. Everything is reconsidered in playing devoid of all easy options, intent only to cast a burning light on a dark and turbulent inner spirit. Powerful and measured, Paterson-Olenich's playing allows every one of the composer's maelstrom of notes to tell, and the First Sonata's magnificent if sprawling edifice is lit by one revelation after another. Here again, there is none of that impersonal, hard-bitten brilliance of the jet-setting virtuoso (Weissenberg on DG, 4/90— nla) and when you listen to the first movement development (like being at the centre of a vortex) and final pages given with such breadth and understanding you are hearing a pianist born for Rachmaninov.
***
The Op.39 Etudes-Tableaux, always among the composer's richest offerings, present the same moving force and involvement. No 1 in C minor is again so individually characterised (no "knife through butter" in a more familiar virtuoso style) while No 6, launched with an exceptionally menacing opening, is all snarls and snapping teeth (it is based on the legend of Red Riding Hood). He makes it clear that No 7 is among the most audacious and indelibly Russian of all Rachmaninov's works and throughout this entire programme you are made frighteningly aware of Rachmaninov's demons, of his confession that "sometimes I think someone will come down the chimney and murder me.
***
All this, superbly recorded and with accompanying notes by the pianist forms a deeply personal tribute to a still misunderstood composer. No lover of Rachmaninov should be without it.
***
The Op.39 Etudes-Tableaux, always among the composer's richest offerings, present the same moving force and involvement. No 1 in C minor is again so individually characterised (no "knife through butter" in a more familiar virtuoso style) while No 6, launched with an exceptionally menacing opening, is all snarls and snapping teeth (it is based on the legend of Red Riding Hood). He makes it clear that No 7 is among the most audacious and indelibly Russian of all Rachmaninov's works and throughout this entire programme you are made frighteningly aware of Rachmaninov's demons, of his confession that "sometimes I think someone will come down the chimney and murder me.
***
All this, superbly recorded and with accompanying notes by the pianist forms a deeply personal tribute to a still misunderstood composer. No lover of Rachmaninov should be without it.
“
There are bigger-name pianists, hordes of them. And yet Yuri Paterson-Olenich delivers, for my money, one of the most compelling Rachmaninov discs of the year. He never spares himself in probing the often uncomfortable emotional depths of this music, while his virtuosity yields pride of place to no one. I've already listened to it three times.
“
The initial impression of Paterson-Olenich is that of a pianist with technique to burn. Rachmaninoff's unique blend of intricately convoluted note spinning, keyboard calisthenics, and windswept melodic outpourings presents no obstacles to him… Paterson-Olenich's Etudes-Tableaux are mischievously mercurial in the fast numbers and poignantly poetic in the slow ones…Meanwhile, I look forward to hearing more from Paterson-Olenich, who gives evidence of being an exceptionally fine artist.
“
Here he shows himself to be a natural Rachmaninoff performer, with playing of intense focus and commitment. He doesn't shy away from the raw emotionalism of the composer's music, yet there is also a gritty urgency to his playing that keeps his interpretations a pole apart from the Hollywood-style sentimentalism.
***
Paterson-Olenich makes every note tell, in playing that is the opposite of glib. He revels in the sonority and colours of the instrument, which is essential in Rachmaninoff, but there is no superficial sheen to his sound… this comes with a conviction and sheer humanity that is compelling, and preferable to the sort of blithe virtuosity that can often be emptily anonymous.
***
The same characteristics of raw emotional force and intensity are evident in the Op.39 Etudes-Tableaux… Paterson-Olenich gives each piece a strongly etched character. It makes the C minor no.1 unusually rugged, and gives no.2 an undertow of unease that never allows its singing lines to settle into lyrical repose… In the opening of no.6 he projects a truly menacing presence… In no.7 once again the penetrating focus of his imagination makes something special of one of Rachmaninoff's most forward-looking creations… a welcome antidote to virtuoso complacency. Warmly recommended.
***
Paterson-Olenich makes every note tell, in playing that is the opposite of glib. He revels in the sonority and colours of the instrument, which is essential in Rachmaninoff, but there is no superficial sheen to his sound… this comes with a conviction and sheer humanity that is compelling, and preferable to the sort of blithe virtuosity that can often be emptily anonymous.
***
The same characteristics of raw emotional force and intensity are evident in the Op.39 Etudes-Tableaux… Paterson-Olenich gives each piece a strongly etched character. It makes the C minor no.1 unusually rugged, and gives no.2 an undertow of unease that never allows its singing lines to settle into lyrical repose… In the opening of no.6 he projects a truly menacing presence… In no.7 once again the penetrating focus of his imagination makes something special of one of Rachmaninoff's most forward-looking creations… a welcome antidote to virtuoso complacency. Warmly recommended.
“
Paterson-Olenich is clearly a pianist who leaves no stone unturned…He allows us to follow the development of the themes and motifs [in Rachmaninov's first sonata] with clarity, bringing the whole work under one umbrella as-it-were. The second movement is especially impressive and poetically constructed.
“
"A young audience listened fascinated to the endless mounting chord structure, which characterises Scriabin's Poème 'Vers la Flamme', almost inhaling the atmosphere of this exceptional concert." [Berlin Klavier Festival]
“
...a powerfully expressive recital of Scriabin's most searching works...tackles them all with astonishing assurance: a most auspicious debut.
“
...his recital, with its opposing elements of dark and light...is given with rare sensitivity and commitment...Time and again he allows one to savour every aspect of Scriabin's neurotic sensibility...playing with spaciousness and lucidity, never whirled into obscure agitation by the composer's idiosyncratic directions...Vers la Flamme is menacingly controlled before the final conflagration, the stream of chromatic ninths in the first of Op 65 Etudes is always musically directed rather than made an excuse for obvious flamboyant virtuosity...An exceptional, very personal issue.
“
...sincere commitment to the composer's musical ideals...interpretative understanding of [the composer's] music...carefully considered...
“
...makes light of Scriabin's fiendishly difficult scores...superb in the delicate sonorities of the Poems.
“
...real understanding of Scriabin's visionary music... poetic dreaminess... textures are always clear.
“
When I heard Yuri Paterson-Olenich play in Moscow last summer, I was immediately impressed by his ability to conjure from the piano the fantastical, the aerial, as well as the apocalyptic and some would say demonic aspects of Scriabin's music. The intensity with which Paterson-Olenich conveys Scriabin's vision is, unrivalled in recent recordings. Looming large throughout is the spirit of Sofronitsky. Several performances really stand out; I was impressed by the austerity and poise of the Prelude Op67 No.1, the brilliance and range of colour employed in the Op.65 Studies and Vers la flame, the dark intensity of the Ninth Sonata. This disc is a testament to Paterson-Olenich's affinity with Scriabin's late music.
“
The young pianist Yuri Paterson-Olenich gave a recital of unusual interest... Beethoven's E major Sonata Op 109, played here with much poetry and feeling... Scriabin... fluent, expansive and contrasting...
“
Paterson-Olenich's playing, consistently enthralling and energetic, remained on high voltage for Mussorgsy's daunting Pictures at an Exhibition... grading textures almost as if de-orchestrating another version... a culmination of artistic power.
“
Yuri Paterson-Olenich, a renowned Scrjabin specialist also delivered the 7th and 10th sonata with astonishing transparency of sound and colour and structural clarity. Rarely has Scrjabin's mind set and sound come across more forcefully as unique and futuristic, suddenly seeming to be much closer to the Russian futurists and Schoenberg's boundary eliminating development of harmonics than to the late romantic nostalgia of someone like Rachmaninov.
***
A very young audience listened fascinated to endless mounting chord towers-which characterize "Vers la Flamme"- almost "inhaling" the atmosphere of this unusual concert.
***
A very young audience listened fascinated to endless mounting chord towers-which characterize "Vers la Flamme"- almost "inhaling" the atmosphere of this unusual concert.
“
Yuri Paterson-Olenich produced a performance [of the Goyescas] which certainly drew every ounce of colour out of a piano… It was a tribute to his musical prowess that he was able to enthral his listeners from start to finish, creating as much tonal and dynamic contrast as humanly possible, allied to a sensitive touch and a wide emotional range which succeeded in effectively characterising the individual movements. The playing was also technically assured in the often highly virtuosic writing…
“
Pianist Yuri Paterson-Olenich turned to the virtuous keyboard reverberation of Rachmaninov's cycle of Etudes-Tableaux from Op.39, swaying between both detached austerity and ecstatic intimacy, demanding the execution of a lofty piano technique. With pliant hands, a burnished sound and power, but also with considerable transparency, Paterson-Olenich delivered that, which Rakhmaninov's score called for. A superior and singular achievement.
“
Two of Bach's preludes and fugues…in F major and F minor were played with sharp-fingered clarity and sensitively-balanced responses to Bach's musical demands, especially in the lively fugue.
***
In Haydn's A flat Sonata... 18th century grace and elegance was projected in full with, in the presto finale, a definite nod in the direction of rustic humour in its twists and turns.He then turned his attention forward 200 years to the Durham composer Stephanie Cant, whose lively and engaging four-movement Sonatine is very much of today, though firmly based in established forms; dynamic in the impulses that drive the scherzo, a cathedral-like calmness to the central meditation, and with a jaunty, driven, florid even, energy giving impulse to the final rondo, with its return of the opening themes.
***
Granados' Maiden and the Nightingale and Albeniz's Triana provided images of Spain full of scented night air in the former and of festive flamenco in the latter. Rachmaninov's First Sonata in D minor…relished to its very Russian core by this pianist. The performance – redolent of wide spaces, open skies, incense-laden orthodox church, bells and grandiloquent flamboyance of orchestral scale – rounded off a memorable season with a grandstand finale.
***
In Haydn's A flat Sonata... 18th century grace and elegance was projected in full with, in the presto finale, a definite nod in the direction of rustic humour in its twists and turns.He then turned his attention forward 200 years to the Durham composer Stephanie Cant, whose lively and engaging four-movement Sonatine is very much of today, though firmly based in established forms; dynamic in the impulses that drive the scherzo, a cathedral-like calmness to the central meditation, and with a jaunty, driven, florid even, energy giving impulse to the final rondo, with its return of the opening themes.
***
Granados' Maiden and the Nightingale and Albeniz's Triana provided images of Spain full of scented night air in the former and of festive flamenco in the latter. Rachmaninov's First Sonata in D minor…relished to its very Russian core by this pianist. The performance – redolent of wide spaces, open skies, incense-laden orthodox church, bells and grandiloquent flamboyance of orchestral scale – rounded off a memorable season with a grandstand finale.
“
... a true virtuoso playing superb music, Yuri Paterson-Olenich displayed the form that, against world-class opposition, has won him awards from the BBC and the prestigious Gramophone magazine.
***
The best music began the recital, but top-class pianism ensured that Schubert's shadow did not fall over the rest of the programme. Yuri showed a natural feel for the idiom of Granados' music, but the highlight of the afternoon was the aptly named suite of Forgotten Melodies by Medtner, a Russian pianist-composer who has been almost totally eclipsed by his contemporary, Rachmaninov… It often sounds like that of a less lugubrious Rachmaninov, but with every bit as many notes! Medtner was less melodically gifted, but these Forgotten Melodies kept me listening for the full forty minutes and proved very palatable. The audience's enthusiastic applause was clearly as much for Yuri's superbly virtuosic and characterful performance as for Medtner's music.
***
What a privilege to hear such a fine artist!
***
The best music began the recital, but top-class pianism ensured that Schubert's shadow did not fall over the rest of the programme. Yuri showed a natural feel for the idiom of Granados' music, but the highlight of the afternoon was the aptly named suite of Forgotten Melodies by Medtner, a Russian pianist-composer who has been almost totally eclipsed by his contemporary, Rachmaninov… It often sounds like that of a less lugubrious Rachmaninov, but with every bit as many notes! Medtner was less melodically gifted, but these Forgotten Melodies kept me listening for the full forty minutes and proved very palatable. The audience's enthusiastic applause was clearly as much for Yuri's superbly virtuosic and characterful performance as for Medtner's music.
***
What a privilege to hear such a fine artist!
“
… listen fascinated how Yuri Paterson-Olenich, free from hectic movements, transforms the sound of the 7th and 10th sonata [of Scriabin] in warming infrared rays…
“
Yuri Paterson-Olenich extracted an entrancing colour range with ease.
