Helena Basilova

A Fearful Fairy Tale

This collection of music is meant as a story in itself, each piece included for the power it has to forge a connection that needed the story to be forged. And so it was with the piece that inspired the album.

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About the album

There are two words for truth in Russian: Pravda for objective truth and Ishtina for transcendental truth, that what you know but cannot explain. While Helena’s previous solo albums – with music from Janacek and Scriabin – were each in their own way quite personal to her, this time she wanted more Ishtina than Pravda. She wanted a story that was not just personal for her but representative of her. And Helena’s personal story is one of multitudes. Of departures and forgetting, discovery and loss, of glimmers of understanding, and feelings of coherence in oceans of confusing false certainties.

This collection of music is meant as a story in itself, each piece included for the power it has to forge a connection that needed the story to be forged. And so it was with the piece that inspired the album.

This album – of stories and a story in itself – is Helena’s tribute, to fairy tales and her homeland.

Tracklist click to play/pause

  • Yuri Bagri

    Fairytale about the forgotten homeland: I. The first snow

    1:04 Play button Pause button 1:04
  • Nikolai Myaskovsky

    Yellowed leaves, Op. 31

    1. I. Andante
      2:22 Play button Pause button 2:22
    2. II. Un poco sostenuto, malinconico e abbandonamente
      1:58 Play button Pause button 1:58
    3. III. Andante cantabile
      1:09 Play button Pause button 1:09
    4. IV. Molto vivace e fantastico
      2:25 Play button Pause button 2:25
    5. V. Molto calmo, ma non troppo lento
      2:24 Play button Pause button 2:24
    6. VI. Vivo
      2:43 Play button Pause button 2:43
    7. VII. Moderato
      3:49 Play button Pause button 3:49
  • Elena Firsova

    A Fearsome Fairytale

    5:46 Play button Pause button 5:46
  • Sergei Prokofiev

    Tales of an old grandmother, Op. 31

    1. I. Moderato
      1:56 Play button Pause button 1:56
    2. II. Andantino
      1:15 Play button Pause button 1:15
  • Leoš Janáček

    Pohádka (Fairytale), JW VII-5

    1. I. Con moto
      5:00 Play button Pause button 5:00
    2. II. Con moto
      4:02 Play button Pause button 4:02
    3. III. Allegro
      2:36 Play button Pause button 2:36
  • Alfred Schnittke

    Piano sonata No. 1, Op. 129: I. Largo

    6:24 Play button Pause button 6:24
  • Nikolai Medtner

    Three tales, Op. 9: II. Allegro alla serenata, con alcuna licenza

    4:07 Play button Pause button 4:07
  • Nikolai Medtner

    Four tales, Op. 34: II. Allegro cantabile e leggiero

    2:31 Play button Pause button 2:31
  • Nikolai Medtner

    Four tales, Op. 26: III. Narrante a piacere

    2:27 Play button Pause button 2:27
  • Nikolai Medtner

    Two tales, Op. 20: II. Pesante. Minaccioso

    4:04 Play button Pause button 4:04
  • Yuri Bagri

    Fairytale about the forgotten homeland: II. Winter dance

    2:09 Play button Pause button 2:09

More information

Label TRPTK
Genre(s) Classical – Romantic (1830-1920)
Classical – Contemporary (> 1920)
Artist(s) Helena Basilova
Maya Fridman
Composer(s) Bagri, Yuri
Firsova, Elena
Janáček, Leoš
Medtner, Nikolai
Myaskovsky, Nikolai
Prokofiev, Sergei
Schnittke, Alfred
Recording location(s) Muziekgebouw Eindhoven - Kleine zaal, Eindhoven (NL)
Recording date(s) April 2019
Cat. No.

TTK 0041

Release date

August 2nd, 2019

Additional links

Download Booklet(PDF)

"… Basilova’s performance is characterized by a clear, concise sound with great feeling for subtle nuances in color. Take for example the opening bars of Alfred Schnittke’s first piano sonata. Just a handful of whispering tones, with which Basilova evokes mysterious vistas."

Joep Christenhusz, NRC

"The recording quality of TRPTK is – it’s starting to become tradition – brilliant."

Aart van der Wal, Opus Klassiek

"Basilova plays the older notes beautifully mild, but the pièce de résistance is the opening movement of the first piano sonata (1987) by Alfred Schnittke. You hear beautiful resonances in the piano, like the mysterious shadow empire of a fearful fairy tale."

Guido van Oorschot, de Volkskrant

"An absolutely stunning performance with an absolutely stunning sound image, high up in a heaven of resolution."

Michel van Meersbergen, HVT Magazine

Further reading

SKU: TTK 0041 DL Category:
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