Prokofieff / Pärt / Schnittke

"[The Gazzanas] have been making music together as brothers and sisters since their early childhood. But that alone does not explain the special intimacy of their music-making. There is more here than just familial familiarity; there is something enormously authentic in their playing, as if it is their task to leave out everything that is not essential." - Christine Lemke-Matwey (Die Zeit, SWR) On their previous album with works by Schumann, Grieg and Tõnu Kõrvits, sisters Gazzana Natascia and Raffaella were able to achieve, according to the French newspaper Le Monde, "the highest levels of instinctive expression", and one could argue that this applies even more to their new recording with music by Sergei Prokofiev, Arvo Pärt and Alfred Schnittke. The duo opens the programme with an urgent interpretation of Prokofiev's Sonata No. 1 Op. 80, entirely in the spirit of the composer (Prokofiev once declared that a certain passage "had to sound in such a way that people jumped out of their seats..."), but at the same time with a lyrical serenity that brings particularly the third movement of the work into an enchanting light. Prokofiev's Five Melodies Op. 35a are also performed with the same conviction, while Pärt's Spiegel im Spiegel, performed with calmness and humility, serves as a thoughtful interruption. The programme concludes with Schnittke's Gratulationsrondo - a festive piece in which the composer circumvents his otherwise typical polystylistic approach and instead shines in a more traditional treatment of the classical idiom.