Your recording [Rachmaninov Sonatas] is terrific, it’s really fantastic, and I enjoyed it very much - a lot of things are just tremendous! I only thought that in the second Sonata [the tempo] sometimes maybe could be a little bit slower in order to get things a bit clearer. But it’s not a criticism – it’s still very convincing, and I like it very much. My wife listened too, and we both enjoyed it tremendously! Thank you so much for remembering me and sending me your recording. Terrific!

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- Vladimir Ashkenazy

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I just wanted to tell you that my wife and I enjoyed your Shostakovich record so much! You really play it so beautifully in every way: not just piano playing, but the character… Obviously you have a very good ear, and you make it so entertaining and so interesting, and you understand it so well. Thank you very much for this record – we really enjoyed it!

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- Vladimir Ashkenazy

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Rustem Hayroudinoff is a serious artist and master, who is able to win over his audience, draw them in, and whose emergence in today’s atmosphere of pseudo-artistic and shallow music-making is especially valuable and welcome.

 

- Lazar Berman

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I was very impressed with your performance in both the Mozart and the Rachmaninov and was pleased particularly to hear such a stylish performance of the Mozart C minor Concerto. I was delighted that you felt that some ornamentation was appropriate in the second movement.

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- Sir Charles Mackerras

 

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The following night, Rustem Hayroudinoff played at St John's Smith Square, in an evening that had a fraction of the audience yet twice the impact (at least for us pianophiles). Rarely do you see the entire listening assemblage jump to its feet at the final note. This one did. The Rachmaninov Piano Sonata No.1 is rarely performed - probably because it is too difficult. It's a Faust Symphony for one instrument and ten fingers, and there is more extraordinary music in a single bar of it than in certain entire evenings of...well, you get the idea.

 

Rachmaninov weaves the work from a range of symbolic leitmotifs for different aspects of Faust, Gretchen and Mephistopheles (helpfully illustrated by Hayroudinoff in his spoken introduction). These pianistic textures would sound as complex on a 100-piece orchestra. As a feat of out-and-out virtuosity it is unremitting, indeed mind-boggling; but to deliver the wild flights of Rachmaninov's imagination with such colour, fidelity, rigour, fire and serious bedazzlement is a phenomenal achievement. Hayroudinoff's performance brought back to life the grand Chaliapin-inflected Russian style, with a depth of perspective in the voicing that was more convincingly 3D than anything we saw in that physically 3D opera.

 

If someone doesn't frogmarch him into a recording studio and insist that he records this gargantuan piece to add to his impressive roster of benchmark, award-shortlisted Rachmaninov discs, then those of us who were there last Saturday will simply have to throw tantrums until they do. Oh, and he also played some extremely fine Bach and Liszt - the small matter of the Second Partita and the Mephisto Waltz No.1 and more.

 

What price trouser-pressed perfection? What price technological novelty? All you need is one person, one instrument, music of genius and a performance infused with the fire of absolute inspiration, awareness and understanding. That is worth ten, probably a hundred, of anything else. That's what the musical experience is all about.

 

- Jessica Duchen, Author, Music Journalist & Librettist

 

 

Few events in my life have evoked such a visceral, emotional reaction as to bring me to tears.  The birth of my two children was one of them.

Standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon for the first time was another.

Seminal moments, to be sure, but the intense emotional waves that swept over me were – in all three cases – an involuntary reaction at the core of my being.  Anyone who’s experienced moments like these remembers them for the rest of their days. Watching my friend and concert pianist, Rustem Hayroudinoff interpret the works of Chopin, Rachmaninoff and other great composers, evokes that same emotional response.  To say that he has mastered the piano as an instrument is like saying Michael Jordan can play basketball.  To say that his music sounds fantastic is like saying the Grand Canyon is just another big hole in the ground.  If you ever have the opportunity to see Hayroudinoff perform, you must go. It is a haunting, spiritual, experience… transforming my soul for days afterward.  It fills me with emotion, and yet totally drains me at the same time.  Concert pianists come and go, but Hayroudinoff will eventually be recognized as one of the great masters of classical piano.

 

- Dave Fessler, Business Development Entrepreneur  & Financial Consultant

 

 

Hello (From a 72 year old amateur musician and inveterate Shostakovich fan)
I purchased the CD of the [Shostakovich Symphony No. 4] last month, and this is just a quick note to tell you that I am absolutely delighted with this version and performance of one of my favourite symphonies. The contrapuntal writing is incredible, and so much more so when heard here. The famous two note ostinato in the finale just a little bit faster to propel the music forward via demonic Viennese waltzes towards the massive coda underpinned with these beautiful bass ostinatos.

My goodness - I can't stop listening to this CD! The fugato in the first movement is more mind blowing than the orchestral equivalent, while all the layers of the middle movement interlock with amazing clarity.
What an outstanding achievement in bringing this version of the 4th into the global domain. I think this is a major masterpiece in its own right, and any compilations of the complete piano music would be incomplete without this piece.

Every few years, an outstanding issue suddenly appears that seems to cut through everything one's heard before. This is one of them.
Also I like the way it keeps going round in my head!

With many, many thanks from a truly satisfied customer who appreciates the best, played by the best !!! Anything less wouldn't suffice here.

Great stuff and many thanks.

- William Fulton

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​Besides the performance, I particularly like the relaxed and educational introduction that binds the piece to its historical and musical context, walking us along the History and the stories of J.S. Bach, his son C.P.E. Bach and also W.A. Mozart. This is what most musical performance - and sometime courses - miss. Not only does it educate the public but it also creates intimacy with the artist, turns him into a "closer" human being, without losing any of the artist's intimate mystery.

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- Jean-Marie Zirano, Founder & President / INTENZIA