Glinka: Complete Piano Works, Vol. 1 – Variations Inga Fiolia

• Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (1804 - 1857):
• 1Variations on an original theme in F Major11:48
• 2Variations on a theme from Cherubini's Faniska in B-Flat Major05:05
• 3Variations on 2 themes from the ballet Chao-Kang in D Major05:22
• 4Variazioni brillanti on a theme from Donizetti's Anna Bolena in A Major11:50
• 5Variations on a theme of Mozart in E-Flat Major (version for piano)05:54
• 6Variations on Benedetta sia la madre in E Major13:42
• 7Variations on the song Sredi dolinï rovnïye in A Minor (Among the Gentle Valleys)02:57
• 8Variations on a theme from Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi in C Major12:37
• 9Variations on Alyab'yev's Solovey in E Minor (The Nightingale)07:51
• Total Runtime01:17:06

Info for Glinka: Complete Piano Works, Vol. 1 – Variations

Glinka can justifiably be described as the fertile acorn from which grew the mighty oak of 19th century Russian national music. The graceful Variations on a Theme by Mozart, based on material from The Magic Flute, is remodeled so skillfully that it has effectively become an original theme.

Fashionable salon pieces include the Variations on Benadetta sia la madre, an Italian romance, and Variations on a Theme from Cherubini’s Faniska, an opera greatly admired by Glinka. In Milan he became famous for his ability to reproduce on the piano the nuances of the voices of the great singers of the day, giving rise to two entertaining sets of operatic variations on themes by Donizetti and Bellini. The Variations on The Nightingale represent his return to the Russian style.

„Take away the vivacious overture to his opera, Ruslan and Ludmila, and how much music from the Russian composer, Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, do you really know? For instance, did you know that this person, pampered by his family from birth, was a composer of piano music, having received keyboard lessons as a teenager? For his mature years he led the life of a dilettante, and though he has been credited as one of the fathers of Russian music in the nineteenth century, his output was small, and, as this disc shows, was often dependent on a mix of influences from Paris, Berlin, Milan and Vienna, all places where he dallied on his affluent nomadic life. The present disc of music, written through much of his life, gives testimony to that backdrop, the nine sets of Variations using themes from operas by Cherubini, Donizetti, Mozart and Bellini together with his own themes and folk melodies. Though there are occasional flights of fantasy that demand a brilliant technique, the content is rather quiet and often withdrawn, as if extemporising for Glinka’s own pleasure. It is his chosen theme from Bellini’s, I Caputeti E I Montecchi, that sparked his greatest interest on the disc, but his problem throughout is an ability to write interestingly for the right hand, but the left hand has little other than a perfunctory role of a basic accompaniment. As much could be performed by amateur pianists, it is to Inga Fiolia’s credit that she retains our attention throughout. Born in Georgia and a multiple prizewinner, she enjoys a busy international career, this being her debut for Grand Piano. The sound engineering is of high quality, and I guess there are another four volumes to come.“ (David’s Review Corner)

Inga Fiolia, piano

Inga Fiolia
the Georgian-German pianist, is quickly establishing herself as one of her generation’s most exciting and gifted young concert soloists. Winning first prize at several International Piano Competitions in Germany, Belgium and Italy, Inga has also received awards from Piano News, Germany´s leading Piano Magazine, the Solti Foundation, the German Academic Foundation for musical life and Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now. The world renown Star Tenor and Echo prize winner Rolando Villazon recent invited Inga to perform in his prestigious ARTE TV show “Stars of Tomorrow” (DVD by Unitel Classica 2015). Her performances are regularly promoted by ARTE TV in Germany, France and by the world’s leading classical music broadcaster Classica. TV in 29 countries worldwide. Inga recently signed with the international renowned label Naxos.

Other artists with whom Inga has collaborated include Michael Barenboim, Christian Lanza.

Her recent concert engagements included solo debuts at prestigious venues such as London’s St. Martin in the Fields, the Allerheilige Hofkirche in Munich, Schloss Mirabell in Salzburg and the Hamamatsu Philharmonic Hall in Tokyo, to places as far afield as the National Theater of Panama City, the National Philharmonic in Rabat, Morocco, Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory, and various venues in Belgium, Italy and Switzerland. As soloist, Inga has collaborated with many world-renown orchestras such as the Cottbus Philharmonic of Brandenburg State Opera House, the Youth Symphony of Berlin, the Yaroslavl Academic Governor's Symphonic Orchestra, the Brussels Philharmonic, the Georgian State Chamber Orchestra and National Philharmonic, the Bergische Symphoniker, the Philharmonic of South Westphalia and the German National Youth Orchestra. Festivals in which Inga has performed include the Schwetzinger SWR Festival, Cologne’s Contemporary Music Festival, Summer Villa Musica Mainz and the Rösrath Piano Festival where she won the Audience Award in 2008.

Inga´s repertoire ranges from baroque to 21st century music, all of which have received great international acclaim. She has premiered contemporary music by Werner Heider (Germany) at Verrieres (France) and Schleiermacher. A devoted chamber musician and accompanist, Inga spent from 2009-2011 accompaning violin at the Cologne Music University with Professor Kosuta and tuba classes with professors Gelhar and Polkinhorn. She is a founding member of Trio Concerto and moderator of the Children’s Concert Series and her recitals, which she moderated herself.

Born in Tbilisi/Georgia into a family of musicians, Inga Fiolia received her first piano lessons from her grandmother. At the age of seven she made her stage debut with the Georgian State Chamber Orchestra. She left the country as war broke out and aged 12 travelled to Moscow to study at Central Music School of Tchaikovsky Conservatory with pianist Alexi Nasedkin, student of the legendary Heinrich Neuhaus. Political unrest in Russia led Inga to emigrate to Germany in 2001. Once in Cologne, Inga graduated as concert pianist and continued her postgraduate studies by Vassily Lobanov, student of Alfred Schnittke. Upon completion of her studies, Inga received a scholarship to study at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot.

Her father is an Honored Artist of Georgia, bandleader of the legendary bands “Orera” and “Dielo”, considered as famous as Beatles in the then-USSR. Inga also worked with Paolo Alvares, Rudolf Kehrer, Peter Feuchtwanger, Pierre-Lauren Aimard, Oxana Yablonskaya, Eduard Brunner, Sequeira Costa.

Inga is based in Cologne and speaks 6 languages.

Booklet for Glinka: Complete Piano Works, Vol. 1 – Variations