Sergei Rachmaninov - Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat major, op.36 (original 1913 version) [23'33]
Sergei Rachmaninov - Six Moments musicaux, op.16 [28'49]
Yvar Emilian Mikhashoff - Portrait of Madame Butterfly [11'43]
Jason Bae- piano
Austrian Gramophone AG0003 (recorded 25/26 June 2015)
(digital download - flacs, cover, inlay and booklet scans)
Recording venue: Tonzauber Studio, Konzerthaus, Vienna
Recording engineer: Georg Burdicek; Producer: Martin Rummel
The young New Zealand pianist Jason Bae was born in South Korea in 1991 but moved to New Zealand at the age of 10. He is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in London - hence the rather strange title for this piano recital - and a Young Steinway Artist. It is also something of a mystery how his first recording came to be made for an Austrian company.
I have had the pleasure of hearing him play most of these works in our small local concert hall during his concert tours of New Zealand. Stand-outs are the two fantasies on operatic themes; rare and also great finds - especially Ronald Stevenson's Peter Grimes. The short-lived American pianist and composer Yvar Emilian Mikhashoff was a new name to me as a composer but his Madame Butterfly is very effective - particularly the Humming Chorus.
Of course, recorded competition is fierce in the Rachmanimov works but, as with the operatic fantasies, these are fine performances and they all make for a scintillating recital.
Download from MEGA.