Having reached the final of the 2018 Leeds Piano Competition with Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto, Geniushene has chosen the last of his three war sonatas to launch her recording career. Together with his Fifth Symphony, which was written at the same time, Piano Sonata No 8 is a showcase for Prokofiev’s creativity, demonstrating an expansive emotional range and surprising insights. Études-tableaux, Op 33, is the first of two sets of piano études that Rachmaninov wrote, each designed with an individual mood and character in mind. The comparative simplicity of the first four études contrasts with the impressive virtuosity demonstrated by Geniushene in Nos 5-8, which call for unconventional hand positions, wide leaps for the fingers and considerable technical strength from the performer.
