Anton Rubinstein stood at the heart of Russian musical life for nearly half a century and had a profound influence on generations of Russian musicians, including Tchaikovsky. His piano sonatas reveal a composer intent on uniting intellect and passion within a symphonic conception of the keyboard. With its heroic, noble themes, the Third Piano Sonata was Rubinstein’s own favourite of the set. The final Piano Sonata no.4 represents the composer at the height of his creative command, pouring a lifetime of emotions into a single piece and distilling the paradoxical tensions between intellect and impulse, Germanic structure and Russian ardour. Sonatas nos. 1 and 2, played by Han Chen, can be heard on 8573989.

This release completes Han Chen’s survey of Anton Rubinstein’s four piano sonatas, following on from the Piano Sonatas nos. 1 and 2 on Naxos 8573989. This was received positively by critics, with The WholeNote declaring that ‘Chen successfully conveys the music’s varied moods, from tender to agitated to triumphant. I found all these attractive works… a pleasure to listen to.’

A fearless performer with seemingly limitless imagination and possessed with uncanny energy, pianist Han Chen plays scores old and new with rare rigour and insight. Alex Ross, classical music critic of The New Yorker selected Chen’s Naxos disc of the Ligeti Études and Capriccios (8574379) as a ‘Notable Classical Recording of 2023’, and characterising him as follows: ‘The Taiwanese pianist Han Chen, a noted interpreter of the Ligeti Études and other modernist repertory, has made a blistering album of the [Liszt] opera transcriptions’ (The New Yorker referring to Opera Transcriptions on Naxos 8573415).