2008
ARTE
09 September 2008
ALEXANDER SCRIABIN: The Complete Piano Sonatas
Russian pianist Vladimir Stoupel presents one of the best complete editions of Scriabin’s piano sonatas. A groundbreaking interpretation.
It requires a good deal of courage and a truly open mind to undertake a complete recording of Scriabin’s piano sonatas. The late-Romantic sounds of the first sonata (1892) and the mystical dimension of the last five (1911–1913) are worlds apart. Like Schoenberg, Scriabin also gradually freed himself from the traditional forms of expression and entered unknown musical territory. Scriabin’s music exceeds itself. It transcends rational thinking and voices the unspeakable. Vladimir Stoupel’s recording is certainly one of the best complete editions ever, and therefore also particularly difficult to comment on. The triple album is so successful because the pianist does not fall into the musical clichés that a superficial occupation with Scriabin’s work could impose on one. His interpretation has more to do with painting than with the playing of a Romantic pianist who lends expression to his passion in an effusive flood of notes. And as a result, Stoupel makes Scriabin’s music again into this adaptable space that eludes the grasp of our understanding. A musical fresco? Perhaps. But illuminated by a stormy sky in which thunderbolts flash. - Mathias Heizmann
BBC RADIO 3
12 July 2008
ALEXANDER SCRIABIN: The Complete Piano Sonatas
Impressive Scriabin from Russian pianist Vladimir Stoupel, who recorded the complete Sonatas for West German Radio in Cologne in 2005. Stoupel's approach is powerfully objective. There's playing here of real beauty and subtle intensity. The third movement and opening of the finale of Scriabin's Third Piano Sonata, for instance, show the slow-burning beauty of his playing. Complete recordings of the Scriabin Sonatas are still comparatively rare, and Stoupel's recording is very good indeed. - Kevin Bee
AUDIOPHILE AUDITION
13. August 2008
ALEXANDER SCRIABIN: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 thru 10 - Vladimir Stoupel, piano
Russian pianist Stoupel, who makes his home in Berlin, studied with Lazar Berman, and is also a conductor. He has mined the sonatas for their expressivity and plays with great clarity, pounding away with intensity when the music demands it. The recordings were made during a series of broadcasts by the Cologne radio station and recorded by WDR. This is a fine boxed set that deserves consideration for anyone wanting to add a complete set of this unique cycle of sonatas to their collection. - John Sunier
ALLMUSIC.COM - CD REVIEW
July 2008
The Life of the Machines
EDA's The Life of the Machines is an interesting and ambitious program of "mechanistic" piano music composed between 1916 and 1948. Vladimir Stoupel's recording is excellent, and despite the existence of viable alternatives to these selections, when it comes to this shadowy end of the modern repertoire, the more the merrier. While Stoupel's interpretations of all these works are strong, the Mosolov and Antheil items stand out as especially so. One of the strengths in this recital is its sense of separateness; Stoupel does not play these works quite the way others have done, and there is a sense of homogeneity to the collection as a whole.
THE WASHINGTON POST
June 17, 2008
Judith Ingolfsson and Vladimir Stoupel
Violinist Judith Ingolfsson and pianist Vladimir Stoupel brought power and purpose to a varied duo program at the National Gallery on Sunday. Stoupel's protean range of expression was well suited to Ravel's "La Valse." It was a performance of thunder and lightning, even if the waltz feeling sometimes took a back seat to the keyboard pyrotechnics. When they played together, the sum of these two fine artists produced moments of great imagination, especially in the outer movements of Ravel's pellucid Sonata.
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG, Germany
January 16, 2008
Heavenly Devil’s Trills
Judith Ingolfsson and Vladimir Stoupel
The violinist Judith Ingolfsson, who won the 1998 “International Violin Competition of Indianapolis,” performed in Frankfurt/Main at the highest level with her duo partner, pianist Vladimir Stoupel. The Icelandic violinist and the Russian pianist rendered with distinct agogic Beethoven’s Violin Sonata no. 10 in G Major, op. 96 – at once brilliant, nimble, tendentiously soft, discreet, and with thoughtfully chosen tempos. As a duo, they showed themselves to be most advantageously attuned to each other. Their sensitive communication made an impeccably refined impression.
In contrast to the agogics in the Beethoven and the strong rubato with which Stoupel played Robert Schumann’s Arabesque in C Major, op. 18 at the beginning of the concert, Stravinsky’s Divertimento for violin and piano, based on his ballet “The Fairy’s Kiss,” came across as vigorously kinetic, often boisterous and dance-like."