Alissa Tavdidishvili Turgeneva

Audio

Below are several examples of Alissa's playing in mp3 format.

Domenico Scarlatti Sonata K145 in D Major click here to download

This sonata was published in a volume of Scarlatti's keyboard sonatas that he gave to Spanish Queen Maria Barbara in 1749. However, most -- or perhaps all -- of the works in it predate that year. Written in D major, this sonata was probably a then-recent composition, though it may have been written as early as the late 1730s. This sonata has most outstanding qualities are its thematic imagination and, thanks to Scarlatti's deft contrapuntal and harmonic workings, its sense of freshness and the unexpected. The sonata opens with a brief, fanfare-like introduction, after which the main theme is heard as an animated but initially serene creation that turns livelier and busier as it progresses. The music pauses several times to sound out chords from the introduction, suggesting the sound of ringing bells. In the second half of the work, Scarlatti develops his material, the mood turning somewhat more serious and the expressive range widening.

Alexander Scriabin Etude OP.2 No.1 click here to download

This Etude was the first of the Three Pieces from Op. 2 that are generally dated to the period between 1887-1889. Scriabin was 15 years old when he wrote this Etude in 1887, a time when he was already an admirer of Chopin and Liszt. The influence of the former can be heard in the harmonies and emotional tenor of the piece, but the main theme is more akin to the singing melodic creations like Rachmaninoff would use would be writing in a few years. Yet the melody divulges characteristics of Russian Gypsy music in its melancholy exoticism. This melody is really at the heart of this popular piece, one of Scriabin's earliest successes.