Born in Moscow in 2001, Alexander Malofeev has already become one of the most captivating pianists of his generation thanks to his phenomenal technique and the remarkable expressiveness of his playing. In 2014, at just thirteen, he won first prize at the junior edition of the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition. For his debut solo album, Malofeev has selected four composers who were all born in Russia but died far from their homeland: Alexander Glazunov in Paris, Mikhail Glinka in Berlin, Sergei Rachmaninoff in Beverly Hills, and Nikolai Medtner in London. Alongside Medtner’s cycle Forgotten Melodies, the most extensive work on the album is Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Sonata, composed while he was still in Russia and revised nearly two decades later in Switzerland. In addition to the common theme of exile, what moves Malofeev most is another idea: “They all share a similar feeling of nostalgia,” he explains. “But you cannot really figure out which moment in time they are actually nostalgic for. It’s almost as if they are nostalgic for a very similar setting which never really existed in history. It’s like it is totally made up, almost a dream world — and you can find it everywhere on this album.”