LDV90

22 LYAPUNOV • 12 ÉTUDES D’EXÉCUTION TRANSCENDANTE A true ethnologist ahead of his time, Lyapunov used authentic melodies from Russian folklore in his Études, as he did throughout his output. They are found here in particular in Chant épique and Lesghinka , a veritable companion piece to Balakirev’s famous Islamey . You have already devoted two discs to Lyapunov’s piano works. What is it that chiefly appeals to you? The viscerally Russian nature – as in Rachmaninoff’s Études-Tableaux ? This phantasmatic universe, often epic, so varied and colourful? Or something else again, which in the end is his alone? I’ve always been attracted to anything with a folk character. I used to listen to Russian songs with my grandmother when I was a child – those melodies whose colour is foreign, but which carry within them a form of simplicity and naturalness. Wherever they come from, they imprint themselves on the memory, so that you feel as if you’ve always known them. This is a subject that interests me in itself, to which I devoted to it my first recording for La Dolce Volta ( Album d’un voyageur ), an exploration of Europe through music from its various folk traditions.