Glazunov composed relatively little music for solo piano despite being acclaimed as a superb performer on the instrument. This excellent disc contains his complete output in larger forms, and like the two piano concertos and string quartets, there’s a lot of very good music here. Both sonatas sport three movements and minor-key openings enriched with a generous dollop of chromatic harmony. The similarities end there, however. No. 1 includes a warm and serene central Andante and concludes with a very Chopinesque finale (played by Duane Hulbert with just the right lightness of touch and delicate rubato). Chopin also dominates the brief and elegant Two Impromptus Op. 54, similarly well captured by this pianist.
The Second Sonata eliminates the slow movement in favor of a large-scale scherzo, and includes a formidable contrapuntal finale where a fabulously written fugue leads to an ambitious cyclical recapitulation of the tunes from the previous movements, coming to rest on a solemn chorale. Hulbert really shines here, projecting the fugue with maximum clarity, long-breathed lyricism, and a generously full but never harsh tone in the concluding pages. He’s similarly adept at holding together the lovely Theme and Variations in F-sharp minor, nicely characterizing the five brief, slowish initial variations and building the structure inexorably to a satisfying finish. Gorgeous recorded sound sets the seal on a production that makes the best possible case for this really excellent but sadly neglected repertoire.
