Dmitri Alexeev began to play the piano at the age of five and a year later entered the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory. He graduated at the age of eighteen and continued his studies with Dmitri Bashkirov for two years. After completing his studies he took part in many prestigious competitions, winning second prize in the Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris and, a year later, first prize in the Enescu Competition in Bucharest. He was also a prizewinner in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, but his most famous accolade was first prize in the 1975 Leeds International Piano Competition: he was the first Russian to win it.

An international career followed, with tours of France, Germany, Austria, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Holland and Japan. He became a favourite in Britain, between 1975 and 1978 giving more than seventy concerts and many radio broadcasts, particularly with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Yuri Temirkanov, as well as with many of the British provincial orchestras. He has also been a regular visitor to the Aldeburgh and Edinburgh Festivals. His USA debut was in 1976 in Chicago with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Carlo Maria Giulini, whilst his New York debut in 1978 was made with a recital at Carnegie Hall. Eight years later he made his debut with both the Concertgebouw and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras. He has toured in Australia and Hong Kong, and performed with singer Barbara Hendricks; and he retains a close link with the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and conductors Yuri Temirkanov and Mariss Jansons. His daughter Anna is also a professional pianist.

Alexeev has recorded many of the Russian concertos and Romantic repertoire for EMI, Virgin Classics and BMG. His first recording for EMI was made under an agreement with the Russian record company Melodya. Issued in 1977, it is of Brahms’s late piano pieces (Opp. 117–119) and contains some extremely sensitive playing. It was followed, fortunately, in 1982 with another disc of Opp. 76 and 116. Unsurprisingly, Alexeev is predominantly identified with Russian repertoire, and many major works of Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Scriabin and Shostakovich appear on his programmes. His EMI recording of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 Op. 18 from 1978 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Fedoseyev is straightforward and not indulgent, yet retains its innate romanticism, whilst the Virgin Classics recording from the late 1980s of both books of preludes, the Moments Musicaux and various other piano pieces won an Edison Award. It is an excellent collection of Rachmaninov’s solo works on two compact discs, probably Alexeev’s finest work in the recording studio.

Another EMI recording, made for the Classics for Pleasure label in 1983, was of Shostakovich’s two piano concertos with the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Jerzy Maksymiuk. It is still one of the best recordings of both concertos and it became something of a hit, as the filler on the disc is some of Shostakovich’s music to Chiaureli’s film The Unforgettable Year of 1919. The section for piano and orchestra entitled The Assault on Beautiful Gorky is a sort of Russian version of Richard Addinsell’s ‘Warsaw’ Concerto which Alexeev plays for all its worth.

He is not, however, restricted to Russian repertoire. He plays the concertos of Grieg and Schumann, and in the mid-1980s recorded some Chopin for EMI: the complete nineteen waltzes were recorded in 1984 and are given a non-virtuosic performance, at turns elegant and stately. Never over-pedalled, Op. 64 No. 2 is taken at a slow tempo, whilst its companion Op. 64 No. 1 is not played purely for effect. The complete preludes were recorded two years later in EMI’s No. 1 studio at Abbey Road. Alexeev’s subtle, seamless and, at times, overlapping pedalling is always at the service of a beautiful sound.

Alexeev is a fine pianist who has sustained a performing career since his win at the Leeds Competition.

© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — Jonathan Summers (A–Z of Pianists, Naxos 8.558107–10).