International Piano

The 14 piano sonatas by the Soviet composer Anatoly Alexandrov (1888-1982) were written between 1914 and 1971. The earliest of them show the influence of Scriabin and Medtner, while in his later sonatas Alexandrov maintained a traditionalist (and rather anachronistic) voice: occasional moments of chromaticism (the start of Sonata No 13) sit alongside the benign diatonic writing of Alexandrov’s last sonata – No 14 – composed in 1971.

The most interesting sonatas are those from the 1920s. As an example, the dramatic opening of the Fourth Sonata (1922) is hugely impressive, as is the whole of the first movement, full of strong ideas, imaginatively developed. Clarisse Teo’s performance is excellent, if lacking something of the headlong momentum of Hamish Milne (Hyperion) or Victor Bunin (Melodiya LP) in the same work. But the important thing about this set is that it gives us the opportunity to hear all of Alexandrov’s sonatas – a substantial body of work – and to chart his stylistic evolution from Medtner disciple to his most striking pieces from the 1920s (Sonatas Nos 3-6), the fine Sonata No 8 (1939-44), which sounds like an escape from (rather than exploration of) the horrors of war, and then to the more modest late works. The set is well recorded, and comes with detailed notes by Teo herself. Connoisseurs of Soviet-era piano sonatas should not hesitate.

—Nigel Simeone