BBC Music Magazine
July 2023
Instrumental Choice

Presto Recordings of the Year
Finalist 2023

International Classical Music Awards
2024
Nominated - Solo Instrument

Alexander Melnikov (harpsichord/fortepiano/tangent piano/piano)

Bach, J S: Chromatic Fantasia & Fugue in D minor, BWV903
Bach, C P E: Fantasia in F-Sharp Minor, Wq. 67
Alexander Melnikov (tangent piano)
Mozart: Fantasia in C minor, K396
Mozart: Fantasia in D minor, K397
Alexander Melnikov (Walther fortepiano)
Mendelssohn: Fantasia in F sharp minor, Op. 28
Chopin: Fantasia in F minor, Op. 49
Busoni: Fantasia in modo antico Op. 33b No. 4
Schnittke: Improvisation and Fugue

A lover of historical keyboard instruments, Alexander Melnikov has already successfully met the challenge of exploring ‘Four Pieces, Four Pianos’ on disc and in concert back in 2018.

Today, he has chosen to perform seven emblematic works of the fantasia genre on harpsichord, fortepiano, tangent piano, early grands, and so on. In this journey through the keyboards of time, we can discover these pieces as they sounded at the time of their creation, but also grasp the invisible thread that links them to each other.

"Fully attentive to historical shifts in idiom and unusually adept at illuminating the personality of different instruments, he’s also a quicksilver artist whose uncanny sense of phrasing responds to the moment-to-moment swerves of the music." - Gramophone Magazine, June 2023