Modest Mussorgsky, Pictures at and Exhibition and piano works Ivo Varbanov

Modest Mussorgsky, Pictures at and Exhibition and piano works Ivo Varbanov

GEGA NEW – GD117

For his Bulgarian CD the pianist has chosen Mussorgsky’s masterpiece Pictures at an Exhibition. This work not only poses to the performer various difficulties with respect to technique and interpretation, but it requires a truthful rendition of the great Russian composer’s unique style, a thorough understanding of the work’s rich and vivid imagery, together with an ability to construct a monumental cycle serving as points of support to the overall structure.

The listener will feel the scope of Varbanov’s performance who is beyond doubt a talented pianist with brilliant technique who has probed deeply in Mussorgsky’s style. Each of the pictures carries a monumental character and ideas of its own, rendered with a great variety of timbres, nuances, dynamics and strokes, while the famous theme of “Promenade” turns the finale of the work into a sound emanation of the Russian spirit, of the great “Knight’s Gate” (in Kiev, the ancient Russian capital).