Dubbed "the Western Lang Lang" during his recent Asian tour, Abduraimov (from Tashkent) is the young virtuoso who won the 2009 London International Piano Competition, with an electrifying performance of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No 3.
This is his debut recording in which he explodes into the ears.
He has a wonderfully passionate performance style and astonishing technique. This suits Prokofiev's Sonata and Suggestion Diabolique, and explodes with further energy in wildly virtuosic pieces such as the Liszt-Horowitz transcription of Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre, and Liszt's Mephisto Waltz No 1.
Some calm is finally restored after all the pyrotechnics with Liszt's more introspective Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude.
Highlight: Impressive, impeccably wild new talent.
Stephan Barratt-Due, artistic director of Oslo Camerata, writes: "[We] landed on arrangements [by Alf Ardal.] ... The depth given by adding a double bass, and the variety in using solos and tutti, gives, in our opinion, the pieces a new dimension combining both the intimacy of Grieg and lifting the richness of the romantic expression in the pieces."
It works well - not surprising since many of Grieg's pieces for piano ended up as fine orchestral arrangements. The quartets are the lush G minor Op 27 (a wealth of double-stops and chordal writing) and unfinished, dancing F major. Rendezvous (1986) by Arne Nordheim, Norway's leading 20th-century composer, is another work for quartet later expanded for string orchestra and teeming with passion.
Highlight: Wonderful string music.
