For the first time in over nine years, Ar­cadi Volodos has agreed to re­cord an en­tire con­cert for TV again. In­deed, his re­cit­al at Vi­enna’s Mu­sik­ver­ein, for which he has chosen works by Skryabin, Ravel, Schu­mann and Liszt, fea­tures a lineup of Ro­mantic to early 20^th-cen­tury heavy­weights, which Volodos renders with his in­im­it­able blend of eth­er­e­al light­ness and force­ful vig­or.

The re­cit­al be­gins with a se­lec­tion of pieces by Al­ex­an­der Skryabin, in which Volodos dis­plays his phe­nom­en­al tech­nique, culmi- nat­ing in the White Mass. Un­der Volodos’ hands, Maurice Ravel’s Valses nobles et sen­ti­mentales be­comes "a kal­eido­scope of trans­par­ent, gos­samer col­ors" (Die Presse).

While Volodos’ ac­count of Schu­mann’s Wald­szen­en flashes with start­ling har­mon­ic echoes of the Ravel piece, his rendi­tion of Liszt’s Après une lec­ture de Dante from the Années de Pèler­in­age "ra­di­ates mod­ern­ity" (Der Stand­ard).

The key­board sen­sa­tion provides a fur­ther ex­ample of his artistry in his en­cores, in which he demon­strates his tal­ent for cre­at­ing his own dazzling pi­ano tran­scrip­tions of works by oth­er com­posers. In an in­ter­view re­cor­ded on the oc­ca­sion of the Vi­enna re­cit­al, Volodos dis­cusses many as­pects of his ca­reer, his play­ing, and his life. Born in St. Peters­burg in 1972, Ar­cadi Volodos burst onto the mu­sic­al scene as con­sum­mate vir­tu­oso and full-fledged mas­ter of ex­press­ive­ness prac­tic­ally overnight: since he re­fused to take part in com­pet­i­tions in his youth, he was dis­covered al­most by chance in the late 1990s. He made his in­ter­na­tion­al break­through with his first re­cord­ing, a col­lec­tion of bravura tran­scrip­tions that brought him epi­thets such as "young sor­cer­er" and "new Horow­itz" - plaudits con­firmed by the many awards he has since re­ceived for his re­cord­ings and the many pres­ti­gi­ous ven­ues at which he has played.

From the Golden Hall of Vi­enna’s Mu­sik­ver­ein:

Al­ex­an­der Skryabin
Prélude in B flat minor, Op. 37 No. 1
Prélude in B flat minor, Op. 11 No. 16
"Dance lan­guide", Op. 51 No. 4
"Guir­landes", Op. 73
Son­ata No. 7, Op. 64 "White Mass"

Maurice Ravel
Valses nobles et sen­ti­mentales
Robert Schu­mann
"Wald­szen­en", Op. 82

Franz Liszt
"Après une lec­ture du Dante"
Fantas­ia quasi Son­ata from: "Années de Pèler­in­age, Deuxième année: It­alie"