Over Time: Rameau, Rachmaninoff & Bach Konstantin Emelyanov

• Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683 - 1764): Nouvelles Suites de pièces de clavecin, RCT 6, Suite in G:
• 1Rameau: Nouvelles Suites de pièces de clavecin, RCT 6, Suite in G: I. Les Tricotets. Rondeau01:36
• 2Rameau: Nouvelles Suites de pièces de clavecin, RCT 6, Suite in G: II. L’Indifférente01:58
• 3Rameau: Nouvelles Suites de pièces de clavecin, RCT 6, Suite in G: III. Menuets I & II02:26
• 4Rameau: Nouvelles Suites de pièces de clavecin, RCT 6, Suite in G: IV. La Poule03:52
• 5Rameau: Nouvelles Suites de pièces de clavecin, RCT 6, Suite in G: V. Les Triolets03:18
• 6Rameau: Nouvelles Suites de pièces de clavecin, RCT 6, Suite in G: VI. Les Sauvages01:55
• 7Rameau: Nouvelles Suites de pièces de clavecin, RCT 6, Suite in G: VII. L’Enharmonique05:10
• 8Rameau: Nouvelles Suites de pièces de clavecin, RCT 6, Suite in G: VIII. L’Égyptienne02:41
• Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 - 1943): Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Op. 42:
• 9Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Op. 4219:41
• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750): French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV 814:
• 10Bach: French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV 814: I. Allemande03:41
• 11Bach: French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV 814: II. Courante02:10
• 12Bach: French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV 814: III. Sarabande03:05
• 13Bach: French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV 814: IV. Anglaise01:20
• 14Bach: French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV 814: V. Menuet I - Menuet II. Trio - Menuet I02:57
• 15Bach: French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV 814: VI. Gigue02:14
• Total Runtime58:04

Info for Over Time: Rameau, Rachmaninoff & Bach

My selection of works by Rameau, Rachmaninoff and Bach for this album weaves a tapestry of nostalgia for a Golden Age — an epoch of eternal beauty and purity in which time itself has a completely different meaning.

I have placed the works non-chronologically and in a tripartite form in order to present not only a better perception of time’s effects on the artist, performer and listener but also its presence in essence thanks to the composer’s art: Rameau’s Suite in G from his Nouvelles Suites de pièces de clavecin functions as a type of prelude, Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a theme of Corelli as the central element, and Bach’s French Suite in B minor as a postlude.

The time frames of the two Baroque cycles that open and close the album are extremely flexible; music of this period never seems to hurry — it is as if the com­poser is saying “Take your time — you have plenty of it — and breathe as freely as you want”. Rachmaninoff, however, pushes us out of our comfort zone, squeezing time like a spring or stopping it completely while reflecting upon the cruelty of the outside world and the harm that it does to harmony and beauty. I decided not to end this recording with the Variations on a theme of Corelli , given the work’s powerful emotional charge; the suite by Bach that concludes the album returns us to a state of harmony and gives us hope that there is time enough.

Konstantin Emelyanov, piano

Konstantin Emelyanov
was born in 1994 in Krasnodar. He began to study music at the age of five. Graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory in 2018. In 2017–2018 he trained at the Rachmaninov Academy in Catania, Sicily, under the tutelage of Professor Epifanio Comis. From 2018 to 2020 he undertook a postgraduate-assistantship study at the Moscow Conservatory (class of Sergei Dorensky and Nikolai Lugansky).

Prize-winner at the International Competition for Young Pianists in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz in Kiev (2012; 2nd prize), the Suzhou Jinji Lake International Piano Competition (China, 2017; 4th prize), the Verona International Piano Competition (2017; 3rd prize) and the Giovan Battista Viotti International Music Competition in Vercelli (Italy, 2017; 1st prize and Audience Award). In 2018 he won 1st prize at the All-Russian Music Competition in Moscow, and in 2019 he took 3rd prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition. The same year he was also awarded the title “Artist of Radio Russia” and became a Yamaha company artist.

Has given concerts as part of the festivals Great Sonatas of the 20th Century in Genoa and Stars on Baikal among numerous others. Appeared at the Teatro Carlo Felice (Genoa), the Seoul Arts Center, Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts, the Zentrum Paul Klee (Bern), the Bulgaria Concert Hall (Sofia), the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre, the Grand and Small Halls of the Moscow Conservatory, the Zaryadye Hall, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, the White Hall of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. In 2019 he took part in projects run by the Bösendorfer Loft Philharmonic concert venue in Moscow.

In 2020 the Melodiya label released the pianist’s debut album featuring works by Tchaikovsky. Information for October 2021.

Booklet for Over Time: Rameau, Rachmaninoff & Bach