Ed.Williamson's Full Review: Romantic Piano - Chopin, Debussy, et al / Nina Pos...
Only a handful of people know of Nina Postolovskaya. Too bad. Way too bad. Nina gives us some of the sweetest music to ever come from under a piano lid in this century or any other. Call it classical, call it old-world. I call it wonderful.
There are three kinds of classical pianists. First, there are the technicians, who are letter perfect on note placement and timing. Then you have the feelers, who serve up a souffle' of emotional interpretation. But there is a third category: a kind of pianist who courageously finds all the notes at precisely the right tempo, yet also conveys the emotion the composer intended in a zone of balance and intensity so vibrant the listener is drawn into the music as if they were dancing with a beautiful child at play. Nina Postolovskaya is of this third variety. Her music is a braid of color and sound from deep within.
On this project, she chooses to begin with the Brahms Waltz in A Flat (Opus 39, No. 15) The waltz is one of the most romantic selections of music ever penned, and when you hear Nina playing it you feel as if you can see the dancers twirling and going round and round the floor of the ballroom, breathless in the perfumed air of a summer night, the lovers disappearing off onto the balcony. From there we move on into the heart-felt strains of Chopin, Schubert, Debussy, and others, ending again with friend Brahms and his Intermezzo (Opus 118, No. 2.)
The CD is actually one of two in a series, and the second one is just as good.
There is a difference in how a man plays the piano and how a woman plays. It is a subtle, sensual difference. And Nina knows how to make it work as a pianist of the fair sex. You listen to her on this CD and you are mellowed out for the rest of the day (or night.) After hearing this I wish I had learned to play the piano. Indeed, now one day I may do it. Why? It's all the fault of the music, the music from the gifted pianists like Nina we hear. Somewhere out there right now a piano is playing, and someone is smiling within.
Right here with Nina's music, it can happen to you. 5 Stars for a World-Class present from the superior Russian talent that is Nina Postolovskaya!
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