Hooray for Guzik!
Let’s give a cheer… no, three cheers for the Guzik Foundation!
Situated in the Bay Area, the Guzik Foundation gives valuable support to promising young Eastern European musical talents who need financial help and encouragement to launch their performance careers.
The results of the Foundation’s efforts are clearly visible and audible on three recording debut CDs released by Delos International. Cellist Anexandre Bouzlov plays Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms (DE 3350), pianist Dinara Nadzhafova dazzles with Liszt and Chopin (DE 1041), and, most recently, Andrey Gugnin displays pianistic wizardry in both Shostakovich Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 (DE 3366).
Photos of these artists show very attractive youngsters who would look absolutely at home in an American high school group shot (perhaps not so much Mr. Bouzlov, whose rather exotic features might peg him as a drama major). Dinara and Andrey qualify, in looks at least, as teenage idols.
But there is a difference. All three are accomplished, serious musicians, trained to the most rigorous standards, already performing for international audiences.
If you listen to any one of these three discs you will quickly recognize the exceptional talents of these young artists and the vision of the Guzik Foundation that supports them.
The most recent of the three recordings, Gugnin’s Shostakovich (DE 3366) has the advantage of including the wonderfully supportive Moscow Chamber Orchestra conducted by Constantine Orbelian, who also leads his virtuoso group in an orchestral arrangement of nine Shostakovich piano preludes… a splendid bonus for all concerned.
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