Piano Works (2006)

Francesco Schlime (piano) & Russian National Orchestra, Mikhail Pletnev

Prokofiev:
 Piano Concerto No. 5 in G major, Op. 55

Ravel:
 Piano Concerto in G major

Schlimé:
 3 Improvisations

"Here is music-making to wonder at. Rarely can the two concertos have been performed with such meticulous care and affection. The Luxembourg-born, 25-year-old pianist includes Pletnev among his teachers. What sadness and introspection he conveys beneath Ravel's clowning surface... The central Adagio emerges as a timeless reverie, making it hard to recall a performance of greater magic or tonal translucency... In the Prokofiev, Schlimé and Pletnev take an almost chamber music-like view of the grotesquerie and acrobatics, and the result is lyrical and musicianly in a wholly fresh and unsuspected way. ...Schlimé's... improvised reflections on the two concertos... were added with Pletnev's blessing, and the concluding mournful, jazzman's chime is very much music that registers 'long after it was heard no more'."
Gramophone Magazine - September 2006