on 21 June 2025

Photographs by David Hogg of Horizon Imaging.

Pianist Yevgeny Sudbin has been praised across the world as a performer and recording artist, and has been hailed as "potentially one of the greatest pianists of the 21^st century". Therefore, what a privilege it was to welcome him back to Breinton for the second time. On this occasion, he had his "little helpers" in tow to make the evening perfect! 

Yevgeny’s years of success must be formed by many elements, but it seems to me that he has been dedicating his whole performing life to achieving ultimately one mission only; one which might be shared with many other musicians, but which Yevgeny is exceedingly good at. To me, his ultimate objective in  performing is to express and convey the messages that the composers yearned to create, be it Prokofiev’s Fourth Sonata or his arrangement of Bach’s cantata. This was an intense but most satisfying affair – getting straight into business with no faff, no fumbling and no undesirable frills. His performance is direct and has no hesitation; it is full of assurance and confidence. He achieves this with iron-clad authority and clarity in his sounds; with superb accuracy eliminating imperfections with his eagle eye; with mighty technical skills which make the most fiendish passages look easy; with in-depth knowledge to interpret what seems ungraspable into an enriching experience; and with magical ability to create impressive tones and sounds in all shapes and textures.

Duet arrangements of Bach’s cantatas (with Yevgeny’s son Alik) and Prokofiev’s Cinderella Suite (with his daughter Bella) were received with great enthusiasm by the audience. How lovely it was to witness a young family making music together at such a high level. We hope their talent and commitment will continue to thrive and contribute to the future of classical music in some way or other.   

• Bach
  • Fantaisie & Fugue in A minor BWV 904
• Liszt
  
  • Funerailles
• Bach, arr. Sudbin
  
  • Siciliano
  • Sheep may safely graze
  • Bach/Sudbin: Die Seele ruht in Gottes Haenden (with Alik Sudbin)
• Prokofiev
  
  • Sonata No. 4
  • Suggestion diabolique
  • Cinderella Suite (with Bella Sudbin)

Yevgeny Sudbin has been hailed by The Telegraph as “potentially one of the greatest pianists of the 21st century”. As BIS Records’ only exclusive artist, all of Yevgeny’s recordings have met with critical acclaim and are regularly featured as CD of the Month by BBC Music Magazine or Editor’s Choice by Gramophone. His Scriabin recording was awarded CD of the Year by The Telegraph and received the MIDEM Classical Award for Best Solo Instrument Recording at Cannes.

It was described by Gramophone as “a disc in a million” while the International Record Review stated that Yevgeny’s Rachmaninov recording “confirms him as one of the most important pianistic talents of our time”. His 10th anniversary disc of Scarlatti Sonatas was received with equal rapture and not only hit No. 1 in the Classical Music Charts but was also nominated for the Gramophone Classical Music Award. Yevgeny was also nominated as Gramophone Artist of the Year in 2016.

Highly praised as a concert soloist — with The Telegraph describing his performance of Rachmaninov's Concerto No. 1 at the BBC Proms as ‘sublime’ — Yevgeny has worked in recent seasons with the Philharmonia, Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, as well as Minnesota Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, Czech Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra and many others. He also performs regularly in many of the world's finest venues and concert series including the Queen Elizabeth Hall (International Piano Series); Tonhalle Zurich; Royal Festival Hall; Concertgebouw (Meesterpianisten, Amsterdam); Avery Fisher Hall (New York) and Davies Symphony Hall (San Francisco).

Yevgeny has collaborated with some of the world’s most influential conductors, such as Neeme Järvi, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Osmo Vänskä, Hannu Lintu, Tugan Sokhiev, Mark Wigglesworth, Andrew Litton, Dmitri Slobodeniouk and Vassily Sinaisky. In addition, his love of chamber music has led him to collaborate with many musicians including Alexander Chaushian, Ilya Gringolts, Hilary Hahn, Julia Fischer, the Chilingirian Quartet, Johannes Moser, Vadim Gluzman and many others. Appearances at festivals in the past have included Aspen, Mostly Mozart, Tivoli, Nohant, La Roque d'Antheron, Menton and Verbier.

Yevgeny was born in St Petersburg in 1980 and began his musical studies at the Specialist Music School of the St Petersburg Conservatory with Lyubov Pevsner at the age of 5. He emigrated with his family to Germany in 1990 where he continued his studies at Hanns Eisler Musikhochschule (Galina Ivanzova). In 1997 Yevgeny moved to London to study at the Purcell School and subsequently the Royal Academy of Music where he completed his Bachelor and Masters degrees under Christopher Elton. He was supported by the Hattori and Pulvermacher Foundations as well as The Wall Trust, of which he is now Vice President. In 2010, he was awarded a Fellowship by Academy and is now a Visiting Professor.

Yevgeny lives in London with his wife and three young children and, in his spare time, he is an avid photographer.

Bach - Fantasia and Fugue

This is a striking example of the mature composer’s command of contrapuntal writing, rich harmony, and expressive intensity. The pairing of fantasia and fugue was a common baroque structure, yet here Bach treats both components with exceptional rhetorical breadth and formal control.

The Fantasia, with its chromatic tension and almost improvisatory feel, is a solemn, declamatory piece full of dramatic pauses and harmonic twists. Its descending figures and sighing motifs give it a quasi-vocal quality, evoking the expressive ideals of the stylus phantasticus—a style that allowed for freedom of form and emotional directness. Despite its rhetorical looseness, it remains tightly constructed, its voice-leading artfully precise even when the mood is dark and brooding.

The Fugue contrasts with a greater sense of momentum and inevitability. Built from a subject of angular simplicity, it unfolds with steely logic, its entries and episodes perfectly balanced. The rising chromatic line in the countersubject injects a sense of struggle that eventually resolves in a satisfying cadence. As with so much of Bach’s keyboard writing, the complexity is never for its own sake; it serves an expressive arc that, even in abstraction, remains deeply human.

Liszt - Funérailles

Composed in October 1849, Funérailles is the seventh of Liszt’s Harmonies poétiques et religieuses and stands among his most personal and politically charged compositions. Though Liszt denied any direct connection with Chopin’s death that same month, the piece unmistakably recalls his friend’s style—particularly in the central march-like section, whose left-hand octaves are often compared to Chopin’s Polonaise in A-flat, Op. 53.

Yet Funérailles is more than an homage. It was written in the aftermath of the failed Hungarian uprising against Habsburg rule, and Liszt, though living in exile, was deeply affected by the political violence and the execution of his friends and countrymen. The piece is subtitled “October 1849” and can be understood as both lament and resistance.

It begins with tolling bells and somber harmonies that suggest a slow funeral procession. The textures are stark, the dissonances raw. A lyrical section follows, tinged with nostalgia but never fully at ease. The martial middle section explodes with energy—heroic, aggressive, defiant—before the piece collapses back into elegiac reflection.

Technically, it is a tour de force: from massive chords to filigree runs, Liszt deploys the piano’s full expressive range. But its emotional content, rather than its virtuosity, gives the work its power. Funérailles is less about mourning a single loss than confronting tragedy on a national scale.

Bach - Siciliano

This lyrical Siciliano, originally for flute and harpsichord, is one of Bach’s most beloved slow movements. Its gently lilting rhythm and expressive melodic line evoke a timeless calm, balancing elegant simplicity with subtle harmonic depth. Ignaz Friedman’s piano transcription preserves the original’s serene beauty while adding a Romantic warmth and expressive depth. Yevgeny takes this one step further in his own interpretation.

Bach - Sheep may safely graze

Originally composed for soprano, two recorders, and continuo, this aria from Bach’s Hunting Cantata is a serene pastoral hymn. Evoking peace and divine protection, it has become one of Bach’s most cherished melodies, often arranged for various instruments, including solo piano.

Bach - Die Seele ruht in Gottes Haenden

This chorale, whose title means “The soul rests in God’s hands,” comes from one of Bach’s most poignant sacred cantatas. As a solo piano piece, it becomes a quiet meditation on mortality and faith. The chorale melody unfolds with serene dignity, supported by harmonies that speak of comfort and trust in divine grace.

Despite its simplicity, the piece conveys profound emotional depth, embodying the Lutheran ideal of peace in the face of death. The sustained lines and gentle pacing invite reflection, turning this sacred vocal work into an intimate expression of inner stillness. It is music of luminous clarity and spiritual assurance—Bach at his most humane and consoling.

Prokofiev - Piano Sonata No. 4

Composed between 1917 and 1918, during a period of upheaval in Russia and in Prokofiev’s personal life, the Fourth Sonata stands apart from his other early sonatas for its introspective tone and emotional ambivalence. Subtitled “D’après des vieux cahiers” (“From Old Notebooks”), the piece draws on sketches from earlier in the composer’s life, filtered through the darker, more mature perspective of wartime disillusionment.

The opening Allegro molto sostenuto is among Prokofiev’s most enigmatic sonata movements. It begins in a brooding, almost hesitant manner, with fragmentary motifs that feel improvised or remembered. The texture is sparse and questioning, moving between introspective lyricism and sudden outbursts. There’s a haunted quality to the writing, as if the past were being unearthed in fragments.

The second movement continues this reflective mood but adds a touch of ironic detachment. Its plaintive melody and off-kilter harmonies evoke a kind of tragic nostalgia. As with much of Prokofiev’s music, emotion is filtered through ambiguity; tenderness is undercut by angularity, and beauty is tinged with irony.

The final movement breaks the mood with percussive energy and rhythmic propulsion. It is less a triumphant finale than a release of accumulated tension. The writing is fiercely motoric, full of the characteristic Prokofiev bite—jagged rhythms, sharp accents, and sudden harmonic jolts. Yet even here, moments of lyricism surface, hinting at unresolved conflicts beneath the bravado.

The Fourth Sonata resists easy interpretation. It is neither a traditional Romantic narrative nor a modernist rejection of emotion. Instead, it inhabits a liminal space, balancing structure and spontaneity, clarity and ambiguity, restraint and outburst. For both pianist and listener, it is a work of rich psychological depth.

Prokofiev - Suggestion diabolique

Composed at just 19, Suggestion Diabolique showcases Prokofiev’s early flair for biting wit and virtuosity. This short, explosive piece fuses demonic energy with rhythmic drive, foreshadowing the composer’s lifelong fascination with the grotesque and theatrical.

Prokofiev - Cinderella Suite

The story of Cinderella—with its timeless themes of transformation, virtue rewarded, and fantasy fulfilled—has inspired countless musical adaptations, but few are as vivid and emotionally nuanced as Prokofiev’s ballet, completed during the final years of World War II. While the full ballet score premiered at the Bolshoi Theatre in 1945, Prokofiev also fashioned several concert suites from the material, including three orchestral suites and a solo piano version, while this arrangement is by Yevgeny.

Stylistically, Cinderella reflects Prokofiev’s mature voice: lyrical yet spiky, humorous yet heartfelt. The grotesque caricatures of the stepmother and her daughters are drawn with biting wit, while Cinderella herself is portrayed with warmth and sincerity. There’s a delicate fusion of enchantment and melancholy, underscoring Prokofiev’s gift for writing music that is both evocative and psychologically complex.

He composed Cinderella during a tumultuous period, splitting his time between Moscow and the relative quiet of the countryside. The war years had forced many artists to retreat inward, and for Prokofiev, fairy tale became a form of escape—but also one of commentary. The optimism and beauty of Cinderella’s transformation offer a poignant counterpoint to the darkness of the time.