CCMusic.com

Liszt first visited Russia in April 1842 when he travelled to St. Petersburg and was so rapturously received that he returned the following year. His last tour came in 1847, the year of his retirement as a concert artist. During these visits he wrote transcriptions of Russian music. There is a stunning transcription derived from a march from Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila, as well as from the Polonaise from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. But he ranged widely, from a Cesar Cui Tarantelle, and Anton Rubinstein's lovely songs to a tender and beautiful folk song called Abscised. Acclaimed by international critics, the Brazilian-born Alexandre Dossin has already firmly established himself as a pianist of the first rank. He was awarded both the First Prize and the Special Prize at the Martha Argerich International Piano Competition in 2003 (Buenos Aires, Argentina).