Anastasiia Larchikova and Mykhailo Diordiiev: Four Hands. Two Hearts. One Hope
Reference Recordings

Don't be fooled by the youthful, fresh-faced visages of Ukrainian pianists Anastasiia Larchikova and Mykhailo Diordiiev: on their debut release, the prodigiously talented pianists play like seasoned vets with years of playing behind them. Their hearts are in the right place too, as indicated by the fact that proceeds from the album are being donated to Ukraine humanitarian aid organizations. Recorded at Blue Griffin's Lansing, Michigan studio The Ballroom in February 2025 and produced by Sergei Kvitko, Four Hands. Two Hearts. One Hope couples material by Ukrainian and American composers, Zoltan Almashi, Myroslav Skoryk, and Bohdan Sehin and John Corigliano, Lowell Liebermann, and Ricky Ian Gordon. One of the more interesting things about the recording is that, while differences between the trios (and between the composers within them) are clearly discernible, there are occasions where the lines blur and something Ukrainian-composed could pass for American.

Both Larchikova and Diordiiev hail from Ukraine, she a graduate of the National Music Academy of Ukraine in Kyiv and currently a student at the Kunstuniversität Graz in Austria and he both a student at the National Music Academy and the Kunstuniversität Graz. Each has been the recipient of scholarships, appeared at international festivals, and won prizes at international competitions. Based on the evidence at hand, the two are poised to have long and prosperous careers, as individuals and, if they wish, as duo partners.

They impress as musicians but as curators too, the proof a sextet of contemporary pieces (three of them world premiere recordings) that are stylistically varied but also easy to embrace. The release begins strongly with Carpathian Song (2022) by Almashi (b. 1975), who graduated from the Lviv National Music Academy with degrees in cello and composition. A string quartet version of the piece was earlier recorded, but the one featured here is its first commercial recording in a piano four-hands edition. As the Lviv-born Almashi grew up amidst the Carpathian Mountains, images of the setting imprinted themselves on his mind as he traveled through the area by train and eventually became the spur to his imagination when writing the panorama. It's only six-and-a-half minutes long yet nonetheless capable of evoking vast open spaces and painting a vivid scene of stunning scenery; nostalgia arises too in Almashi's fond musical visualization.

Corigliano (b. 1938) is represented by the four-part Gazebo Dances, first composed in 1985 as a set of four-hand pieces and then later made into a suite for orchestra and concert band. The title evokes the nostalgic image of public band concerts on summer evenings at town pavilions, and the heartwarming tone of that memory permeates the work itself. In the composer's own words, it “begins with a Rossini-like “Overture,” followed by a rather peg-legged “Waltz,” a long-lined “Adagio,” and a bouncy “Tarantella.” The rollicking spirit with which it opens engages, as does the work's melodic abundance and rhythmic energy. The high-spirited “Waltz” and “Tarantella” appeal, while the gentle “Adagio,” so confidently executed by the two, registers strongly. The vitality of the pianists' playing also plays no small part in the material having the impact it does, and the synchronicity they demonstrate throughout speaks to their close connection too.

A graduate of the Moscow Conservatory and a teacher at the Lviv Conservatory and Kyiv Conservatory, Skoryk (1938-2020) was awarded the titles of People's Artist of Ukraine and Hero of Ukraine. Composed in 1995, his Three Extravagant Dances complements the irreverence of Corigliano's piece, and even the movement titles are playful. The pianists dig into “Entrance and Dance … almost Hispano-Moresque” with a fervour verging on rabid, after which “Blues … almost American” slows the pace for a haunting expression steeped in, naturally, the blues; it's also the moment where the material could most be mistaken for the work of an American composer. The upper-level technical command Larchikova and Diordiiev have clearly achieved is eventually called upon for the boisterous “Can-Can … as if from an old gramophone record.”

Liebermann's (b. 1961) sixteen-minute Romance, Etude and Chorale, Op.134 (2019) was commissioned by Steinway & Sons to celebrate the wedding of pianists Lang Lang and Gina Alice Redlinger and was first publicly performed in July 2023 at the Anchorage Chamber Music Festival in Alaska. “Romance and Etude,” which begins with a theme built from the couple's initials—G, A, Re and La, La—is as heartfelt, lyrical, and tender as expected, while the hushed “Chorale” exudes dignity, solemnity, and majesty. Its title a conflation of “rhubarb” and “rumba,” Ru-um-bambar (1998/2023) provides a five-minute sampling of the work of Sehin (b. 1976), who studied with Skoryk at the Lviv Conservatory (from which Sehin graduated in 1999). The sparkling shimmer of its dense piano clusters and cycling patterns is unlike anything else on the album and makes its inclusion all the more refreshing. Four Hands. Two Hearts. One Hope ends with a beguiling piece that in a perfect world would be an encore at every four-hands concert, Ring-A-Ding-Ding (1998) by the great Ricky Ian Gordon (b. 1956). Jazzy swagger, rousing rhythms, and two vocal shout-outs of the title punctuate the snappy setting and amplify its lusty, good-time appeal.

October 2025