Barjansky: Complete Piano Works, Vol. 1 Julia Severus

• Adolf Barjansky (1851- 1900):Fantasy Pieces, Op. 9:
• 1 Fantasy Pieces, Op. 9: No. 1, Presto 03:02
• 2 Fantasy Pieces, Op. 9: No. 2, Andante sostenuto 04:03
• 3 Fantasy Pieces, Op. 9: No. 3, Allegro giusto ma vivo 01:42
• 4 Fantasy Pieces, Op. 9: No. 4, Allegretto moderato 01:58
• 5 Fantasy Pieces, Op. 9: No. 5, Andante non troppo 02:46
• 6 Fantasy Pieces, Op. 9: No. 6, Con moto tranquillo 02:46
• Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 7:
• 7 Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 7: I. Allegro maestoso 07:18
• 8 Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 7: II. Maestoso 06:39
• 9 Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 7: III. Presto 03:56
• 10 Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 7: IV. Allegro molto quasi presto ed appassionato 08:56
• 6 Piano Pieces, Op. 10:
• 11 6 Piano Pieces, Op. 10: No. 1, Near the Sea 04:06
• 12 6 Piano Pieces, Op. 10: No. 2, Remembrance 03:33
• 13 6 Piano Pieces, Op. 10: No. 3, Lullaby 05:19
• 14 6 Piano Pieces, Op. 10: No. 4, Scherzo 01:15
• 15 6 Piano Pieces, Op. 10: No. 5, A Happy Home 03:36
• 16 6 Piano Pieces, Op. 10: No. 6, Devotion 02:57
• Total Runtime 01:03:52

Info for Barjansky: Complete Piano Works, Vol. 1

Adolf Barjansky was born in Odessa into a wealthy Russian-Jewish family, and received his musical education in Vienna, Paris and Leipzig, studying piano with Carl Reinecke and Salomon Judassohn. Barjansky composed relatively few works, but his highly attractive and original piano music reveals the influence of Schubert, Beethoven and Brahms with a wealth of Russian colour, as heard in the Fantasy Pieces. The 6 Piano Pieces are impressionistic and radiant, while the large-scale Piano Sonata No. 1 uses spatial sound as a principal means of expression, blending it with a highly modern simplicity and transparency of structure that anticipates 20th-century minimalism.

Julia Severus, piano

Julia Severus
began playing the piano at the age of four. She graduated from the Berlin University of Arts and from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where she studied piano with Mikhail Voskresensky and Lev Naumov. Interested in questions of transversality of historic articulation practice, she wrote her dissertation at the Technische Universität Berlin on J.S. Bach’s Articulation Practice and Possibilities of Its Application in His Piano Works, with publications in Die Musikforschung and Concerto – Das Magazin für Alte Musik.

Wishing to explore piano ensemble repertoire, she founded the Aurora Duo and Quartet, performing numerous premieres and world premieres, among them Rodion Shchedrin’s Hommage à Chopin in the presence of the composer, followed by recordings for two pianos, eight hands, of Russian Romantic Piano Transcriptions (Naxos 8.557717) and ofMare – Works for 4 Pianists by Norwegian contemporary composers. With her colleague Alina Luschtschizkaja, Julia Severus made the first recording of the complete Tchaikovsky ballet suites (Naxos 8.570418).

Her solo recordings of Rachmaninov’s piano transcriptions (Naxos 8.573468), Franck’s early piano works (Naxos 8.572901), Tchaikovsky’s opera and song transcriptions (GP 795) and Bizet’s complete solo piano works (Naxos 8.570831-32) have been highly praised. The latter was presented on Carrefour de Lodéon and Les Stars du Classique in France, was awarded Album of the Week by RBB in Germany and acclaimed by The Guardian.

Booklet for Barjansky: Complete Piano Works, Vol. 1