It was a great honour and, of course, pleasure to perform in the Grand Hall of the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, France this May. This was the first concert of the incredible international festival of amateur pianists "Les Amateurs Virtuoses!" which took place in Paris 31 May - 4 June 2015.
Having been given this superb opportunity to start the festival, Misha Dubov (whose ingenious interpretations of rare Russian music are available here) and I performed several pieces solo and then joined each other in the Suite "Silouhettes" by Anton Arensky for two pianos. Hope the recordings of this beautiful but seldom performed music will be available soon. As for now, enjoy this recording nicely prepared by Misha of Nikolai Medtner's Fairy Tale in b-moll, Op. 20 No. 1. While Medtner composed 38 Fairy Tales, this "Skazka" remained his particular favorite. This recording was made on July 1, 2013 at the opening concert of the International Competition for Amateur Pianists "Piano Bridges". This event takes place in Saint-Petersburg annually and always attracts a multitude of gifted amateur musicians from all over the world. I am happy to be part of this community since July 2012, when I was awarded the second prize of the Competition and a special prize - which was participation in the series of piano concerts within the festival "Les Amateurs!" (my story with this festival continues, for more music see my post about June 2015 in Paris!).
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