Oleg Marshev

After winning several first prizes in international piano competitions, Oleg Marshev caught the attention of the classical music world with his authoritative recordings of the complete solo piano music of Prokofiev. He has since recorded over thirty CDs and is now firmly established as among the most talented Russian pianists performing today.

Born in Baku, former USSR, Oleg Marshev is a fifth-generation representative of Russian pianism that can be traced directly back to Liszt, through his teacher at the Moscow Conservatory, Mikhail Voskresensky. Resident in Italy since 1991, Marshev has received awards in several international piano competitions in Canada, Italy, Portugal, Spain, USA, including 4 first prizes.

Oleg Marshev

Oleg Marshev made his New York debut at the Lincoln Center with a critically acclaimed recital at Alice Tully Hall. He has performed on numerous occasions at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and has given concerts throughout the world, including appearances at such prestigious festivals as the A.B. Michelangeli Festival of Brescia-Bergamo (Italy), Ruhr Klavier Festival (Germany), and at the Roque d'Antheron Festival in France. He regularly performs with the Aarhus, Helsingborg, Sonderjyllands, and Aalborg Symphony Orchestras, amongst others.

Oleg Marshev is the first pianist to have recorded the complete concertos by the four great Russian composers: Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Shostakovich. His recent recording of concertos by Pabst, Rimsky-Korsakov and Scriabin has received glowing reviews from BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone, with his virtuosic playing being described by the Daily Telegraph as ‘mind boggling'. He has also recorded many lesser-known concertos by Schytte, Rubinstein, and Balakirev. His interest in rarely-performed piano works has led to several world-première recordings, including Emil von Sauer's complete piano music and concertos by Romantic Danish composers.

Oleg Marshev's recordings on the Danacord label are all highly regarded by leading international publications. BBC Music Magazine wrote of his Shostakovich Concertos disc: “Marshev is a phenomenon – a master of every mood…but above all a controlling sensibility of intelligence and feeling”. His Prokofiev recordings were described by Gramophone as “one of the most authoritative and impassioned performances on disc so far”.