Various Composers - Shura Cherkassky Rediscovered, Vol. 1

Information

• Felix Mendelssohn - Prelude and Fugue in E Minor, Op. 3, No. 5
• Felix Mendelssohn - Prelude and Fugue in E Minor, Op. 3, No. 5: II. Fugue
• Frédéric Chopin - Nocturne in B Major, Op. 9, No. 3
• Frédéric Chopin - Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23
• Frédéric Chopin - Nocturne in F Minor, Op. 55, No. 1
• Frédéric Chopin - Scherzo No. 2 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 31
• Frédéric Chopin - Mazurka in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 59, No. 3
• Robert Schumann - 'Der Kontrabandiste' Spanisches Liederspiel, Op. 7 (Arr. for solo piano by Carl Tausig)
• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - The Tale of Tsar Saltan: Flight of the Bumble-Bee (Arr. for piano by Sergei Rachmaninoff)
• Claude Debussy - 2 Arabesques: No. 1, Andantino con moto in E Major
• Morton Gould - Boogie-Woogie Etude
• Igor Stravinsky - Trois mouvements de Pétrouchka
• Modest Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition

Shura Cherkassky, piano

Date: 2026

Label: Nimbus Records

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In the early 1980s, pianist Shura Cherkassky, long regarded among the leading artists of his generation alongside Vladimir Horowitz, was experiencing a decline in concert and recording prominence after a distinguished career. In January 1981, he was introduced to the emerging Nimbus label and spent four days recording at Wyastone Leys, whose grand Victorian setting and inspiring views of the Wye Valley deeply impressed him. Cherkassky expressed his enthusiasm in a warmly inscribed LP to the Nimbus team. The recordings from these sessions, now compiled in this release, feature works by Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schumann, Rimsky-Korsakov, Debussy, Morton Gould, Stravinsky, and Mussorgsky.

Shura Cherkassky (1911–1995) was a Ukrainian-born, London-based pianist celebrated as one of the last great exponents of the Romantic keyboard tradition. A child prodigy from Odessa, he studied with Josef Hofmann at the Curtis Institute and built an international career marked by electrifying, unpredictable performances of Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Mussorgsky, and Liszt, alongside adventurous programming that included Berg and Messiaen. Guided by intuition, he was admired for his tonal color, spontaneity, and virtuosity, though sometimes deemed erratic. After postwar success in Europe, his popularity resurged in the 1980s through numerous Nimbus recordings and later releases on Decca. He performed actively until his death in 1995.

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