Beethoven: Symphonies No. 3 & 8 (Transcribed for Piano by Liszt) Yury Martynov

• 1 I. Allegro con brio 17:38
• 2 II. Marcia funebre (Adagio assai) 17:55
• 3 III. Scherzo (Allegro vivace) 05:55
• 4 IV. Finale (Allegro molto) 11:47
• 5 I. Allegro vivace e con brio 09:40
• 6 II. Allegretto scherzando 03:49
• 7 III. Tempo di menuetto 05:26
• 8 IV. Allegro vivace 09:37
• Total Runtime 01:21:47

Info for Beethoven: Symphonies No. 3 & 8 (Transcribed for Piano by Liszt)

Transcription, for Franz Liszt, was in equal measure a means of celebrating the genius of Beethoven and of meditating on his works. It was also a way of provoking a well-nigh titanic confrontation between the resources of the pianist and his instrument and the immense potential of the orchestra. Thus the power of the interpreter’s conception, his understanding of the essence of the work, become the crucial factor in Liszt’s approach and in the adventure offered to the listener.

For the third volume of his complete set of Liszt’s transcriptions of the Beethoven symphonies, Yury Martynov has chosen a piano of 1867 made by Blüthner, whose instruments were much admired by Liszt.

Yury Martynov, piano

Yury Martynov
(piano, harpsichord, fortepiano, clavichord, organ) belongs to the most interesting and versatile Russian musicians of our times whose performance combines the best traditions of the Russian piano school and the West-European keyboard school with the unique personality. In the world there are few performers who master so many instruments and so many styles.

Yury Martynov graduated from the CentralSpecialMusicalSchool at the Moscow State Conservatory “P.I. Tchaikovsky”, the piano under Professor S.L. Dijour, and the theory of music under Professor Y.N. Kholopov. Then he graduated from the Moscow State Conservatory, the piano under Professor and the people’s artist of the Russian Federation, M.S. Voskresenskiy; and the organ under Professor and the RF honored artist, A.A Parshin (diploma with honors), and then the assistantship of Professor M.S. Voskresenskiy.

In 1993-1994 Y. Martynov took a study course in France from Professor I. Wjunisky, the department of harpsichord and basso continuo in the High School of Music “Jean-Wiener” in Bobigny, and in the Conservatory “C. Debussy” in Paris, which he both graduated from with gold medals.

From 1989 the musician is giving concerts, performing the concert programs as a soloist and a chamber ensemble member in the best concert halls of Russia, CIS countries, in many countries of Europe, also in USA and Japan. He took part in many prestigious Festivals in Russia and abroad, among them: S.Rikhter December Evenings in Moscow, MozartFest in Wurzburg, Sans-Souci Fest in Potsdam, Rheingau-fest, Raritaten von Klaviermusik in Husum, Early Music Festival in St-Petersburg, Moscow Autumn (contemporary music’s festival), Musique & Nature en Bauges, Early Music’days of Concerto Koeln, Vantaa Barock Festival, Christmas Fest in York, Liszt en Provence and many others. Among his scene partners there are A. Lyubimov, M. Brunello, N.Gutman, S. Sondeckis, P. Schreier, S. Kuijken, B. Tevlin, A. Rudin, D. Liss, M. Inoue, B. Kelemen, A. Sladkovsky and many other outstanding performers and conductors. In 2000, together with D. Sokolov and S. Filchenko, he created the PLAYel-trio (from 2006 the violinist in the trio is V. Pessin).

Yury Martynov is a laureate of such international contests as: “Maria Canals”, Barcelona (the first prize), “Ennio Porrino”, Cagliari (the first prize), Ville d’Epinal (the second prize), “W.A.Mozart”, Salzburg (the first prize).

Yury Martynov was the first musician in Russia who performed the “Well-tempered Clavier” of I.S. Bach on clavichord, and who presented a range of solo and chamber compositions by P. Philips, T. Tallis, J. Schobert, A. Eberl, I. Prach and other composers of Renaissance, Baroque and early Classicism to the Russian public. He also fulfilled a range of unique programs such as all Pasticcio concerts by Mozart for harpsichord with orchestra, author’s transcriptions of Bach’s violin and lute compositions, the program “French Arch” from the compositions of F. Couperin and J.-F. Rameau on clavichord and of the compositions by C. Debussy and M. Ravel on piano performed on the “December Evenings”, etc. A great response from the public was provoked by the cycle of concerts “All symphonies of Beethoven in F. Lizst’s transcriptions”, which was performed on the “Erard” piano of 1840 (the musician performed three symphonies in this cycle). The concerts were organized together with pedagogues and students of the department of keyboard instruments and of the chamber ensemble of the Department of Historical and Contemporary Performance Art (FISII) in the halls of the Moscow State Conservatory.

The discography of Martynov including several CDs recorded and released on famous Russian and foreign record studios. From 2011 Martynov’s CDs will be released exclusively on the labels of OUTHERE-music. The musician also made fund records for the “Orfey” radio station, BBC, ORT 1 and WDR.

In future the musician plans to pay more attention to records. In particular, the “ZigZag - territoire” record studio (OUTHERE-music group), which released two solo piano Beethoven - Liszt’s albums (2nd & 6th symphonies and 1st & 7th symphonies at the piano “Erard”) of the performer, plans to record complete Beethoven’s symphonies in Liszt’s transcription, a CD with Prokofiev’s piano works, a clavichord CD with author’s clavier transcriptions of the lute and violin compositions by Bach etc.

The both CDs realized by “ZigZag-territoire” in 2012 were mentioned by the most prestigious Magazins: Mozart’s Works for two Keyboards performed with A.Lubimov was awarded by “Diapason d’Or”, and first Beethoven-Listz’s transcription CD was awarded as BBC Music Magazine “Disc of the Month” and “Choc de la musique” by Classica Magazine. In 2013 the second volume of symphony’s transcriptions also was mentioned by Classica Magazine (“Choc de la musique”) and Diapason (“5 diapasons”).

From 1994 Yury Martynov lectures at the Moscow State Conservatory “P.I. Tchaikovsky” (from 2003 he is an associate professor, in 2006-2010 – the head of the department of keyboard instruments and of the chamber ensemble of the Department of Historical and Contemporary Performance Art). Y.Martynov started his pedagogical career in 1994 as an assistant of Professor M.S. Voskresenskiy.

Today Martynov’s students are musicians who proved their professionalism taking the first prizes on International contests in Moscow, St-Petersburg, Brugge, Gmunden, San-José, etc. They are successful musicians performing in the best halls of Moscow and St-Petersburg, in other Russian cities and abroad; many of them give lectures including in their Alma Mater. Among them there are: A. Gindin, A. Shevchenko, K. Volostnov, S. Kudryakov, S. Kuznetsov, A. Koreneva, V, Khomyakov, etc.

Yury Martynov gives master classes in many Russian cities and abroad (USA, France, Germany, Turkey, Kazakhstan etc.). He regularly takes part in the program “Musical Itineration” of the Russian Culture Fund.

Booklet for Beethoven: Symphonies No. 3 & 8 (Transcribed for Piano by Liszt)