Welcome to ‘Dodd’s Discoveries’, a review series from NativeDSD Senior Music Reviewer Bill Dodd. This series focuses on Bill’s latest selections, with new reviews regularly. And the best part… the albums featured in the most current review will be available at a reduced price! Click the button below to see all of Dodd’s Discoveries and to find the current album(s) on sale.
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Here’s a discovery from just a few weeks ago that I really wanted to share with you– Denis Kozhukhin’s Somnia. The Russian pianist is absolutely marvelous in this exploration of the theme of childhood. These works are charming, yet truthful. They are involving, yet soothing. Most importantly, this is music that captures your attention and keeps it!
Despite its simplicity Prokofiev’s Music for Children reflects Prokofiev’s signature wit, harmonic inventiveness, and rhythmic vitality. And while there are no direct quotes, you will hear hints of his later ballets. For the pianist, these “simple” pieces are filled with technical challenges.
Tchaikovsky’s Children’s Album is made up of 24 short movements that reflect everyday pleasures of life for children in a 19th Century gentry home. The work was played by Denis Kozhukhin in what he calls his first “official” recital.
Shor’s Sonata no. 2 is a contemporary work that fits perfectly between the Prokofiev and the Tchaikovsky. In spite of the separation of time between the three composers, there is a cohesiveness that really works.
I could sum up my feelings, but Denis Kozhukhin says it quite well in the booklet notes:
“Is this album a view of the world through the eyes of a child? Or is it maybe the view of an adult, realizing that it is through the eyes of a child that the world really looks as it should…“
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