Vyacheslav Gryaznov: Western Piano Transcriptions
Master Performers

When asked by a close friend why he creates piano transcriptions when, in that friend's estimation, a piano version can't compete with an arrangement featuring the beauty of the natural voice or the sonorities of an orchestra, Russian pianist Vyacheslav Gryaznov responded by using the analogy of black-and-white photos. In his view, the absence of colour in that medium forces the artist to distill the essence of a work into its purest form, and in fashioning a piano transcription he aspires to do the same. Ideally, the work should sound natural in its pianistic presentation, so much so that it holds up equally well next to the more elaborate original.

Nine such versions are presented on Western Piano Transcriptions, the sixty-three-minute recording a natural sequel to his 2018 collection, Russian Transcriptions. Whereas that release features pieces by Borodin, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, and Glinka, the new one includes works by Bach, Mozart, Ravel, Mahler, and others. Gryaznov's well-equipped to take on the challenges of the project: a graduate of the Central Music School of the Moscow State Conservatory, he completed Yale University's Artist Diploma program in 2018, has performed as a soloist in Russia, China, Europe, and the United States, and earned prizes at numerous international competitions.

Claudio Monteverdi's Sì dolce è'l tormento (1624) provides an elegant way into the recording, with Gryaznov's performance of the solo madrigal exemplifying his assured command of pacing and dynamics. Up next, a rendering of J. S. Bach's Organ Fantasia in G Major, BWV 572 (c. 1709) initially dazzles for the precision of his finger articulation before impressing on other grounds. The stateliness of the lilting episode succeeding it registers as memorably, as does the well-calibrated diminution in intensity and volume that follows plus the equally gradual escalation that comes next. Emotional expression is powerfully accounted for in the slow passages that gracefully unfurl within Mozart's Unfinished Fantasia in C Minor, K. 396 (1782).

Certainly one of the set's most fascinating treatments is the version of the “Adagietto” from Mahler's Symphony No. 5 (1902), especially when the elegiac fourth movement is presented in a left-hand arrangement. As Gryaznov had recently learned the Left-Hand Piano Concerto by Ravel, he was drawn to create a new one to play as an encore for a symphony orchestra performance; as he'd also been listening to a lot of Mahler at the time, he decided on the “Adagietto,” and he also surmised that its strings-and-harp arrangement would lend itself effectively to a left-hand piano treatment. Both the fragility and drama of Mahler's composition are captured by the pianist, and the delicacy with which the melodies are suspended is likewise consistent with the wistful tone of the originating material.

Two movements from Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46 (1875) appear, the poetic reverie “Morning Mood” and sensuous “Anitra's Dance.” Evoking Impressionism in its atmospheric character, the former slowly blossoms; the latter, by contrast, exudes rhythmic vitality from the first moment as it wends its seductive way. Speaking of Impressionism, Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (1894) loses little of its hypnotic grandeur in its migration from symphonic tone poem to languorous piano rumination, and the tempestuous character of Ravel's La valse (1919-20) is similarly retained in Gryaznov's exuberant, almost Gershwin-esque treatment.

December 2021