The French pianist Lydia Jardon is the first to climb the Himalayas of the piano" (Le Monde - Pierre Gervasoni /2011). She is continuing her recording of the complete Miaskovsky Sonatas (1, 5, 9) after the Sonatas of Inner Anger (2, 3, 4) published in 2009.
Discover the emotional and mystical force of this monumental composer who is so rarely performed:
You can also buy this record at www.ledisquaire.com or stream it at www.theorchard.com.
Sonata No.1 Op.6
2.II - Allegro affanato
3.III - Largo espressivo
4.IV - Non allegro
Sonata No.5 Op.64 No.1
6.II - Largo espressivo
7.III - Vivo
8.IV - Allegro energico
Sonata No.9 Op.84
9.I - Allegro non troppo
10.II - Andante sostenuto
11.III - Molto vivo
Artistic director and sound engineer: Jean-Marc Laisné.
AR RE-SE 2019-7
Released in March 2020!
Composed between 1910 and 1940, Miaskovsky's piano sonatas sound like a diary of his moods. The fall of Tsarism, an officer's father assassinated by the Bolsheviks on a station platform, refusal to conform to the artistic criteria of Stalinism, Nicolaï Miaskovsky's life was a real hell.
Recorded in 2009 by Lydia Jardon, "first of the rope in the Himalayas of the piano" (Le Monde 2012), and unanimously acclaimed by the critics, the sonatas Nos. 2, 3, 4: "trilogy of anger" bear musical witness to a period of Russian history when inner freedom was synonymous with survival.
In the second opus, the performer begins with the gigantic Sonata No. 1: a tormented, atonal, almost delirious Scriabinian writing. This score is mirrored by the post-Romantic, even folkloristic sonatas Nos. 5 and 9. No doubt because the political harassment to which Miaskovsky was subjected pushed him towards a less esoteric music, closer to the people. In the third movement of sonata no. 5, the obsessive theme that 'haunts' sonata no. 1 is repeated.
In view of the complete piano sonatas by Miaskovsky, the last disc of which will be released in 2023, Lydia Jardon has chosen to close this second cycle with the almost childlike Sonata No. 9, whose accents are reminiscent of certain pieces by Kabalevsky, or even of Grieg's "Lyrical Pieces for Piano", written in 1867.
The press speaks about it
Mediapart, 28 March 2020, Frédérick Casadesus
In the light of Lydia Jardon
"Preferring side roads to musical highways is the honour of Lydia Jardon, an award-winning pianist who, for almost twenty years, has been promoting forgotten or simply unknown composers through her label Ar-Ré-Sé. […] »
OnMAG, 6 April 2020, Jean-Pierre Robert
CD: Lydia Jardon plays Miaskovsky's sonatas
"The merit of this CD is that it focuses on a little-known area of the output of the Russian composer Nicolai Miaskovsky, a contemporary of Prokofiev and Shostakovich: his piano works. The three of the nine sonatas played by Lydia Jardon show a profusion of piano writing that she reveals with brio. […] »
Pizzicato, 8 April 2020 / Hervorragende Myaskovsky-Interpretationen
"Nikolai Myaskovsky (1881-1950) is probably best known for his symphonies (and this through the recordings of Yevgeny Svetlanov). For the less known piano sonatas Lydia Jardon is an artistically extremely valuable advocate. After a first CD with the Sonatas 2, 3 and 4 (released in 2009), she now plays the Sonatas 1, 5 and 9. […] »
A second volume of piano sonatas by Miaskovsky by Lydia Jardon
"Lydia Jardon has clearly understood the message that can be read between the notes of this attractive music, but which requires, somewhat like Scriabin, a renewed and attentive hearing. The pianist translates all the nuances and melodic inflections with a keen sense of balance and clarity, without neglecting the characteristics of an art that is ultimately personal, despite the aesthetic influences that point the ear from time to time. Lydia Jardon also masters the emotion, which she distils with that gravity that shines through particularly in Sonata No. 9, amidst the bitter memories that surface. […] »
Thierry Vagne, 17 April 2020 / Lydia Jardon plays Nicolaï Miaskovsky
"It is a music that is both demanding and quite captivating, highly constructed, never talkative; Lydia Jardon renders both the architecture and the impulses superbly. […] »
Le Monde, 17 April 2020, Pierre Gervasoni
Album selection: Nikolai Miaskovsky, Mapache, S.Pri Noir, Aynur...
"To listen to this week: piano sonatas by Lydia Jardon, a guitar-voice duo from Los Angeles, a French rap star, a Kurdish singer... [...] "
France Musique, April 22, 2020
Morning music at home with Verdi, Brel, Lydia Jardon and Arnaud Merlin
"Musique Matin is back every day from 8 to 9 a.m., for an hour of home-produced matinees with various reviews, an interview with a musician, new releases, a focus on shows available online and all the latest news on the music scene. […] »
The Russian composer Nikolai Miaskovsky, a contemporary of Prokofiev and Shostakovich, is obviously not as famous as the latter. Sonatas 1, 5 and 9 have been little performed, and even less recorded. Connoisseurs are probably more familiar with the symphonies and sonatas for piano and cello than with the solo piano work, despite the obvious similarity.
read our Press Review