Bachauer Silver Medalist Vassily Primakov celebrates the Etude, a form elevated from mere technical exercise to concert masterpiece by such composers as Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and Schumann.
In recent years, Vassily Primakov has been hailed as a pianist of world-class importance. Gramophone wrote that “Primakov’s empathy with Chopin’s spirit could hardly be more complete,” and the American Record Guide stated: “Since Gilels, how many pianists have the right touch? In Chopin, no one currently playing sounds as good as this! This is a great Chopin pianist.”
He entered Moscow’s Central Special Music School at the age of 11, and at 17 came to New York to pursue studies at the Juilliard School. At Juilliard he won the William Petschek Piano Recital Award, which led to his debut recital at Alice Tully Hall. He also won both the Silver Medal and the Audience Prize in the 2002 Gina Bachauer International Artists Piano Competition, and later that year he won First Prize in the 2002 Young Concert Artists (YCA) International Auditions. In 2007 he was named the Classical Recording Foundation’s “Young Artist of the Year.” In 2009, his Chopin Mazurkas recording was named “Best of the Year” by National Public Radio.
Mr. Primakov has released numerous recordings for Bridge Records that include works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Chopin, Dvorak, Debussy, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, among others. In 2011, he and his duo-piano partner, Natalia Lavrova, established a new record company, L.P. Classics, Inc. which has released a number of additional recordings.
In the fall of 2021, he collaborated with two other pianists, Natalia Lavrova and Oxana Mikhailoff, to perform a “piano extravaganza” of two piano works based on transcriptions from opera and ballet, at the Sparkill Concert Series in Sparkill, NY. This performance is also available on a CD.
In addition to his full teaching schedule and his performance career, Vassily Primakov is co-director of the Sparkill Concert Series in Sparkill, NY.
CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS
Etude in D-flat Major, op. 52, no. 6 (en forme de Valse)
ANTON ARENSKY
Etude in G-flat Major, op. 25, no. 3
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF
Etude-tableau in G Minor, op. 33, no. 7
Etude-tableau in E-flat Minor, op, 39, no. 5
ALEXANDER SCRIABIN
Etude in C-sharp Minor, op. 42, no. 5
Etude in F-sharp Major, op. 42, no. 4
FELIX BLUMENFELD
Etude de Concert in F-sharp Minor, op. 24
Etude for the Left Hand in A-flat Major, op. 36
FRANZ LISZT
Paganini Etude No. 3 in G-sharp Minor (La campanella)
JEAN SIBELIUS
Etude in A Minor, op. 76, no. 2
FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN
Etude in A Minor, op. 25, no. 11
Etude in C Minor, op. 10, no. 12
Etude in E Major, op. 10, no. 3
ROBERT SCHUMANN
Symphonic Etudes, op. 13
