From the Silver Age romanticism of the early Sonata in F sharp minor, through the Shrovetide peasant festivities of Petrushka and a clutch of Jazz Age miniatures to the neo-Bachian computations of the Sonata and Serenade in A, Stravinsky’s ever-changing preoccupations can be traced through his music for piano, his own instrument.
Oxana Shevchenko is minutely attuned to the specific character of each piece – whether a simple character study for children or a glitteringly virtuosic tour de force – and brings her Russian heritage and training to this most cosmopolitan, yet ultimately most Russian, of composers.