Grigori (Grigory) Samuilovich Frid was a distinguished member of the generation of composers born in Russia just before the Revolution of 1917. Frid’s significant corpus of piano music can trace its lineage to Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and Stravinsky, and his skill in conjuring entire worlds in music can be heard throughout this recording. His albums of Children’s Pieces are rich in gems that evoke poetic nostalgia, seasonal moods and witty pictorial descriptions that genuinely transcend their didactic purpose. In these world première recordings, distinguished pianist Elisaveta Blumina reveals Frid’s extraordinary character – a gifted composer, pedagogue and artist who lived his life to the full, despite many personal setbacks and difficulties.

German pianist Elisaveta Blumina is an Echo Klassik Awards prizewinner and artistic director of the Hamburg International Chamber Music Festival. She belongs to a generation of musicians who put the music centre stage, and is steeped in the great Russian piano tradition of Heinrich Neuhaus. Blumina has performed at such prestigious venues as New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Berliner Philharmonie, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, among others. Blumina has also appeared as a guest soloist with many orchestras including the Dresdner Philharmonie, Moscow Virtuosi and Sinfonia Varsovia with conductors such as Thomas Sanderling, Yuri Temirkanov and Vladimir Spivakov. In addition to her career as a pianist, Blumina is also an artist whose paintings are, for her, another form of music making. The cover artwork features one of Blumina’s own paintings, Rainy Day.