The young pianist
Tetiana Shafran
came with a host of big prizes but was little known to the public before being signed to the
Steinway & Sons
label, but she makes a convincing debut here. She has plenty of competition in the big virtuoso pieces she plays here, but most of it is male, and she blows away any concept of a distinctively female style. Fitting the golden-age pianism mission of the label is her version of
Tchaikovsky
's
The Sleeping Beauty
, transcribed for piano by
Mikhail Pletnev
. This transcription would have seemed normal in
's time but is not so common nowadays. Sample the third track, "Vision," for a demonstration of
Shafran
's crystalline playing. The other two pieces, the
Rondo in E flat major, Op. 16
, of
Chopin
and
Ravel
Gaspard de la Nuit
, are common enough, but
brings to them a rare combination of clarity and power. Consider the "Scarbo" finale as well; it seems as though every conservatory graduate plays this piece these days, but the uncanny edge of
's repeated notes is not so common.
Steinway
contributes excellent sound from the Sono Luminus studios on a recording that clearly marks
as a young player to watch. ~ James Manheim