TO RUSSIA WITH LOVE - Kostandin Tashko

TO RUSSIA WITH LOVE (CVLD332)

Kostandin Tashko, piano

Nikolaj Karlovi Medtner
01 - Sonata Reminiscences op.38 in A minor n.1 from Forgotten Melodies I, 15'56"

Pyotr Ilyich Tschaikovsky & Michail Vasil'evi Pletnëv
The Nutcracker Suite, 17'50"
02 - March, 1'59"
03 - Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, 2'09" 
04 - Tarantella, 1'22"
05 - Intermezzo, 4'13"
06 - Trépak (Russian Dance), 1'12"
07 - The Tea (Chinese Dance), 1'22"
08 - Pas de deux (Andante maestoso), 5'33"

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky
Trois mouvements de Pétrouchka, 17'40" 
09 - Danse russe, 2'50" 
10 - Chez Pétrouchka, 5'17"
11 - La semaine grasse, 9'33"

Tot. time: 51'32"

24bit/88.2kHz original recording made at Laboratorio ZANTA, Camponogara, Italy, on December 3, 4, 2020
Kostandin Tashko plays on Steinway & Sons D274 Concert Grandpiano, prepared and tuned by Silvano Zanta

Production: VELUT LUNA
Executive producer: Marco Lincetto
Recording, mix and mastering engineer: Marco Lincetto
Musical producer and editing engineer: Mattia Zanatta
Text: Myriam Guglielmo
Inside photo: Marco Lincetto
Design and layout: L'Image

Kostandin Tashko    
“...profound vision of the text combined with an important musical maturity. Very young and already master of a piano technique of great importance beside a vast and important repertoire...”
Daniel Rivera, Pianist (2020)
“..strong musical personality and talent clearly emerges from his artistic skills….never shows off a virtuosity that is an end in itself...always subordinates it to a higher intellectual vision, which reflects a clear awareness of the music architecture.    
Alessandro Taverna, Pianist (2020)
The Albanian pianist Kostandin Tashko is the winner of wide range of international competitions in Albania, Italy, Croatia, Great Britain, Macedonia, Kossovo, Switzerland-France, Slovenia. He already performed in some of the most important venues and festivals. The debut CD with KNS label includes works by Liszt, Scriabin and Ravel. A student of the Liceu “Jordan Misja” in Tirana with Valbona Kasaj, he graduated at the Trieste Music Conservatory ”Giuseppe Tartini” under the guidance of Teresa Trevisan.  Masterclasses with B.Lupo, A.Delle Vigne, R.Dalibaltayan, O.Gardon, D.Tomsic, R. Kinka, M.Miladinovic, V.Balzani, C.Elton, P.Gililov, N.Grubert.

Russia! Piano writing among composition, transcription and returning. The course suggested by Kostandin Tashko in the sign of Russian musical tradition unravels along a path that, though drawn within the 20th century context, tends to withdraw with nostalgia towards a past with vaguely defined outlines, among Metner’s late romantic oneiric, Tchaikovsky’s fairy-tale and Stravinsky’s ancestral. The piano is a self-evident protagonist, an instrument historically connected to the writing activity both as starting point to draw piano pages assigned to the performance of the same composer, and as receiver of transcriptions drawn from orchestra pieces played by the author or by following interpreters.
Myriam Gugliemo