Pianist Dmitry Masleev on his Dies irae-themed Liszt & Rachmaninov album

Dmitry Masleev took first prize in the Piano category of the 2015 Tchaikovsky International Competition and since then has released a number of recordings. The latest, from Aparté, is a concertante collection of Liszt's Totentanz, his Rhapsodie espagnole (in a version for piano and orchestra made by Masleev's professor at the Moscow Conservatoire, Mikhail Petukhov) and Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. He was joined by the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra.

James Jolly, who first met Masleev during the 2019 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, caught up with him again to talk about how the competition changed the course of his career, the new album and how the Dies irae theme infuses so many great classical works.