This disc is my introduction to [Eldar Nebolsin’s] playing and I am favorably impressed.

…Nebolsin characterizes the themes beautifully, with the grander passages played boldly but never percussively and the lyrical ones displaying eloquence and a seamless legato. Textures are clear and perfectly voiced.

CHOPIN, F.: Piano Concerto No. 1 / Fantasy on Polish Airs / Rondo a la krakowiak (Nebolsin, Warsaw Philharmonic, Wit) 8.572335
CHOPIN, F.: Piano Concerto No. 2 / Variations on La ci darem / Andante spianato and Grande polonaise brillante (Nebolsin, Warsaw Philharmonic, Wit) 8.572336
DOHNANYI, E.: Variations on a Nursery Song / Symphonic Minutes / Suite (Nebolsin, Buffalo Philharmonic, Falletta) 8.572303
LISZT, F.: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 / Totentanz (Nebolsin, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Petrenko) 8.570517
RACHMANINOV: Preludes for Piano (Complete) 8.570327
SCHUBERT, F.: Piano Sonatas Nos. 4 and 13 / Wanderer Fantasy (Nebolsin) 8.572459

Eldar Nebolsin comenzo grabando para Naxos en 2007 con los Preludios de Rachmaninov. Desde entonces ha recorrido Conciertos y obras para piano y orquesta de Chopin, Liszt y Dohnanyi, hasta llegar a su ultimo disco con el piano de Schubert, en el que ha vuelto a encerrarse solo sin mas compania que el mismo, como hiciera con aquel Rachmaninov, unos Preludios (Op. 3/2 y Opp. 23 y 32) de un colorido deslumbrante, ritmicamente intensos y con una capacidad expresiva emocionante. Para cualquier pianista proveniente de la antigua Union Sovietica estas obras son como una ducha diaria, practicamente estan en la “rutina” habitual de cada pianista. Nebolsin los escucharia por los pasillos de los conservatorios, pero esta familiaridad no ha convertido su interpretacion en una mas, pues la capacidad para extraer finas sensaciones de cada preludio es un acierto que no cae en la exhibicion sonora sin tener por que, como les ocurre a muchos pianistas con estas obras, que apabullan pero cayendo en el vacio robando su alma. Desde el Op. 23/6, un Preludio que Gilels adoraba y que en Nebolsin suena con una exquisitez creativa admirable, al Op. 23/10, cantado con una ternura maravillosa, todo el ciclo de la Op. 23 es de una belleza magistral, a la altura de las mas grandes recreaciones. La densa sonoridad de Rachmaninov, creada por una continuidad incesante de notas y una asfixiante armonia, es para el pianista uzbeko un reto que se convierte en claridad (Op. 32/1) y verdadera poesia (Op. 32/5).

La obra completa para piano y orquesta de Chopin conto con Wit y la elegante Filarmonica de Varsovia, en interpretaciones que rebosan placidez y elegancia, pura belleza sonora, con un punto de vista mas lirico que dramatico. Puede ser que la direccion sea menos “arriesgada” que otras recientes (Mehta, Nelsons, Fisch), con cierta correccion, pero el more....

Review By Alan Becker,American Record Guide,September 2011

It takes a few moments for the ear to adjust to the in-your-face, brittle, and strident sonics supplied by the Naxos engineers. Once acclimated, these are pleasant, straightforward Schubert performances. Nebolsin certainly has the technique and musicality not to be thwarted by any of the composer’s daunting challenges.

The Allegretto quasi andantino from D 537 is particularly felicitous, and the final Allegro vivace has sparkling articulation. The same can be said for D 664…the famous Wanderer Fantasy, long a favorite of pianists, is played with vigor and stunning control, especially in the more taxing passages. Nebolsin is able to move ahead without slowing down for the real challenges, especially in the concluding fugal Allegro…

This recital begins with two of Schubert’s early piano sonatas composed in 1817 and 1819, and concludes with one of his greatest masterworks, the Fantasy in C major D760 known as the Wanderer. Eldar Nebolsin sets a powerful and tragic tone at the outset of the A minor sonata, with its rhythmically tight descending minor scale motif. Schubert’s expressive markings are meticulously observed; there is plenty of light and shade where needed, and Nebolsin produces some lovely tone in the more lyrical passages. In the second movement he makes a convincing contrast between the lyrical beauty of the right hand melody and the staccato quaver accompaniment. Nebolsin always varies the repeats in this variation form movement with subtle changes in rubato and dynamics. In the final third movement, with its dramatic opening, we return to more energetic music in which Nebolsin excels.

The Sonata in A major, D664, composed about two years later, is in a totally different mood. The gentle opening melody is appropriately played in a simple and unfussy way. Further on Nebolsin is well able to portray the more agitated and dramatic parts of the movement. Following the flying octaves in the development section, he makes a beautiful return to the work’s opening theme at the beginning of the recapitulation. The ensuing andante movement is sensitively played and in the final allegro Nebolsin makes convincing contrast between the virtuosic sections and the movement’s more lyrical moments.

The Wanderer Fantasy of 1822 is a work which, not only formally, but in pianistic terms too, looks forward to future developments in nineteenth century music, perhaps more so than any other. With its four joined sections and use of an all-pervading motif, it is the forerunner of the symphonic poem of Liszt, the ideé-fixe of Berlioz and the leitmotif of Wagner. The virtuosity required to play this work, including pounding octave passages, anticipates the pianistic terrors of Liszt’s writing for piano later in the century.

The piano is indeed made to sound like an orchestra, and the opening bars resonate with great power in Nebolsin’s hands. Maybe when this motif is repeated and developed from bar 15 where it is marked to be played very softly, a more subtle difference in mood and colour could have been forthcoming. Brendel…captures this change beautifully by playing the opening motif a fraction quicker and lighter than Nebolsin, so that his pianissimo together with a gentle slowing down, is more sensitive and telling. Pollini…is also more subtle here and in similar passages.

The important transition into the ensuing adagio section of the work is also subtly and movingly presented by Brendel. Nebolsin begins just a fraction too loudly compared with the final chords of the first section, making this sound too obviously like a new movement. However Nebolsin’s performance is superb, full of sad pathos where needed as well as glittering demore....

Review By Phil Muse,Audio Video Club of Atlanta,July 2011

Russian pianist Eldar Nebolsin gives highly nuanced and beautifully detailed accounts of three delightful works of Franz Schubert. The program includes two of his melodically richest Sonatas, Nos. 4 in A minor, D 537 and 13 in A Major, D 664 plus the remarkable “Wanderer” Fantasy in C Major, D 760. Nebolsin’s touch is light and poetic, allowing the delicate color of Schubert’s lyricism to come through in an unforced manner that serves the needs of the music very well indeed.

Nebolsin’s grasp of structure, simplicity of approach with clear, natural phrasing, and the song-like purity of the recorded sound make this a very special Schubert disc…Nebolsin’s discs of Rachmaninov and Liszt have rightly won universal high praise. I hope this does the same.

Since Franz Schubert’s Fantasy in C major, D. 760, “Wandererfantasie,” is essentially a sonata in its four-movement form, and has a duration comparable to his piano sonatas, it makes sense for Eldar Nebolsin to program it with two works in that genre, the Sonata No. 4 in A minor, D. 537, and the Sonata No. 13 in A major, D. 664. Yet “Wandererfantasie” is such an imposing work of formal, technical, and expressive complexity and difficulty, it should be regarded as the weightiest of the three pieces here; inevitably, the two sonatas will feel a little like preludes, as if they were chosen specifically to foreshadow or prepare for it. That’s not too far-fetched, if one listens for ideas that resemble the rhythmic and melodic patterns that emerge in “Wandererfantasie.” Note especially the hammered chords in the first movement of the Sonata No. 4, which seem at the outset to anticipate the main theme of the later work, or the song-like elements in both sonatas that point up the use of the song “Der Wanderer” in the Fantasy. Nebolsin surely understands Schubert, right down to the smallest details, so his selections, whether arrived at intuitively or by analysis, are appropriate, and his performances give the whole album a coherence and unity that seem instructive. Schubert’s creative process may be difficult for lesser mortals to comprehend, but Nebolsin’s cogent interpretations and masterful execution fully convey Schubert’s music with clarity of purpose and emotional power. Naxos provides excellent audio reproduction.