Nelly Akopian-Tamarina’s new album, Slavonic Reflections receives plaudits from BBC Music Magazine.

David Nice writes,

“Introspection and mystery reign here: Moscow-trained pianist Nelly Akopian-Tamarina seeds her own very singular mists out of which real faces loom from time to time. The selection of Chopin Mazurkas tend to the minor key, not always melancholy with this composer, but very much so here. The da capo of Op. 67 No. 2 sets the tone, with a retreat into reverie. Among the many radical creations in the genre, Op. 17 No. 4, with its sotto voce opening and unresolved ending much loved by Leonard Bernstein, is the height of enigmatic poetry; Akopian-Tamarina relishes its distant voices and still lives.

“There’s perfect, if dreamlike logic of following this sequence with Janáček’s In the Mists, improvisatory in feel as any interpretation must be, in turn ceding to a melancholy Medtner Fairy Tale and a shadow of the Chopin line, Lyadov’s Mazurka in F minor.

“…The sincerity and deep musicianship of Akopian-Tamarina are never in doubt, and they’re very much complemented by her intelligent and informative note.”

Slavonic Reflections is available now on Pentatone.