Rachmaninoff:
Aleko - highlights
Moments Musicaux, Op. 16
Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 36

Behr:
Lachtäuben

Pianist Sheng Cai devotes his latest recording to piano works by the renowned Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. Dedicated to composer Aleksandr Zatayevich and revised in 1940, Six moments musicaux, Op. 16 represents a turning point in Rachmaninoff's writing for solo piano. Abandoning the conventions of salon music, the work is imbued with heightened Romanticism and technical complexity. Rachmaninoff's Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 36 overflows with intertwined countermelodies in the style of Robert Schumann and with its astonishing virtuosity, follows in the footsteps of Franz Liszt. Rachmaninoff and his friend, the celebrated pianist Vladimir Horowitz, enjoyed transcribing celebrated opera arias, allowing themselves the freedom to change their interpretations spontaneously. It is in this same spirit that Sheng Cai transcribed and performs the piano transcription of the opera Aleko. "I try to create new sounds and colors on the piano which differ from [those in] the orchestral versions of these scores," says Cai. Long attributed to Rachmaninoff, the Polka de W. R. is in fact by German composer Franz Behr (1837-1898). In 1911, Rachmaninoff made this brilliant arrangement of his father's favorite polka. Sheng Cai studied at Shanghai Conservatory of Music and was a top prize winner at the 1998 National Competition. The following year, his family immigrated to Canada where he began studying at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. He earned his Bachelor of Music Degree under full scholarship at New England Conservatory in Boston. His most important teachers include legendary pianists Anton Kuerti and Russell Sherman.