Nicholas Angelich

Prokofiev: Visions fugitives, Nicholas Angelich

Nicholas Angelich has been praised by Gramophone magazine as "a titan of the keyboard" whose interpretations are of "a wholly exceptional drama, sweep and impeccable craftsmanship". Here the US-born, Paris-trained pianist draws together music written by Prokofiev during World War 1, the 1930s and World War 2.

The main work on his album is the Piano Sonata No. 8, premiered in 1944 as the third of the composer's so-called 'war sonatas'. Prokofiev, describing it as "an expression of the greatness of the human spirit", conceived it above all in lyrical terms, though its final movement is a mercurial Vivace.

Contrasting with the substantial sonata are the Visions fugitives, 20 miniatures written between 1915 and 1917 and inspired by the words of Prokofiev's friend, the poet Constantin Balmont: "In every fleeting vision I see worlds full of the volatile play of rainbows". The album is completed by four movements from Prokofiev's most celebrated ballet score, Romeo and Juliet, in the composer's own transcriptions for piano.