Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 Yevgeny Sudbin, Tapiola Sinfonietta & Osmo Vänskä

• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15:
• 1 I. Allegro con brio (cadenza based on Friedman) 15:01
• 2 II. Largo 10:15
• 3 III. Rondo: Allegro scherzando (cadenza by Y. Sudbin) 08:52
• Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat Major, Op. 19:
• 4 I. Allegro con brio 13:44
• 5 II. Adagio 08:16
• 6 III. Rondo: Molto allegro 06:01
• Total Runtime 01:02:09

Info for Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2

On two previous albums, Yevgeny Sudbin and Osmo Vänskä have released Beethoven’s three last piano concertos to critical acclaim. Distinctions include Editor’s Choice in Gramophone and top marks from the Italian magazine Musica and the German website Klassik-Heute.de, and performances have been described as ‘electrifying’ (classicfm.com), ‘absolutely stunning’ (Fanfare) and ‘a Beethoven experience you will not want to miss’ (ClassicsToday.com). For the final disc in their cycle, Sudbin and Vänskä have travelled to Helsinki to team up with Tapiola Sinfonietta, one of the top Nordic ensembles, and well suited for these earlier and more classical of Beethoven’s concertos. Of the two, the one we now know as the Second was actually begun several years before Concerto No. 1, and indeed even before Beethoven left Bonn for Vienna. During the following decade, Beethoven returned to the score repeatedly and made substantial revisions – including composing a new final movement – and ultimately the C major concerto reached publication first. Both concertos were conceived long before Beethoven's involvement with the symphonic genre, and the influence of Mozart and Haydn is evident in the interaction between the orchestra and the soloist – but Beethoven's individual spirit is nevertheless unmistakeable.

Yevgeny Sudbin, piano
Tapiola Sinfonietta
Osmo Vanska, conductor

Yevgeny Sudbin
has been hailed by The Telegraph as ‘potentially one of the greatest pianists of the 21st century’. As BIS Records’ only exclusive artist, all of Yevgeny’s recordings have met with critical acclaim and are regularly featured as CD of the Month by BBC Music Magazine or Editor’s Choice by Gramophone. His Scriabin recording was awarded CD of the Year by The Telegraph and received the MIDEM Classical Award for Best Solo Instrument Recording at Cannes. It was described by Gramophone as ‘a disc in a million’ while the International Record Review stated that Yevgeny’s Rachmaninov recording ‘confirms him as one of the most important pianistic talents of our time’.

Yevgeny performs regularly in many of the world's finest venues and concert series, both in recital and with orchestra, including Tonhalle Zurich; Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall (International Piano Series) and Wigmore Hall (London Pianoforte Series) in London; Concertgebouw (Meesterpianisten, Amsterdam); Avery Fisher Hall (New York) and Davies Symphony Hall (San Francisco). Recent engagements and tours have included orchestras such as New Zealand Symphony, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Lucerne Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. His performance of Rachmaninov's Concerto No.1 at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall was described by The Telegraph as ‘sublime.’

Yevgeny has collaborated with some of the world’s most influential conductors, such as Neeme Järvi, Charles Dutoit, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Osmo Vänskä, Hannu Lintu, Tugan Sokhiev, Mark Wigglesworth, Andrew Litton, Dmitri Slobodeniouk and Vassily Sinaisky. His love of chamber music has led him to collaborate with many other musicians including Alexander Chaushian, Ilya Gringolts, Hilary Hahn, Julia Fischer, the Chilingirian Quartet and many others. Appearances at festivals include Aspen, Mostly Mozart, Tivoli, Nohant, La Roque d'Antheron, Menton and Verbier.

Recent and future engagements include concerts and recording projects with the Tapiola Sinfonetta and Osmo Vänskä, Netherlands Philharmonic and Ivor Bolton, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Michael Seal, Rotterdam Philharmonic and Stanislav Kochanovsky, and extensive touring in North America. He also returns to many recital stages, including the Wigmore Hall, Moscow International House of Music and Serate Musicali (Milan).

Yevgeny was born in St Petersburg in 1980 and began his musical studies at the Specialist Music School of the St Petersburg Conservatory with Lyubov Pevsner at the age of 5. He emigrated with his family to Germany in 1990 where he continued his studies at Hanns Eisler Musikhochschule (Galina Ivanzova). In 1997 Yevgeny moved to London to study at the Purcell School and subsequently the Royal Academy of Music where he completed his Bachelor and Masters degrees under Christopher Elton. He was supported by the Hattori and Pulvermacher Foundations as well as The Wall Trust, of which he is now Vice President. In 2010, he was awarded a Fellowship by Academy and is now a Visiting Professor.

Yevgeny lives in London with his wife and two young children and, in his spare time, he is an avid photographer.

Booklet for Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2