Russian pianist Valentin Malinin, winner of the 62nd Jaén International Piano Competition, has chosen a programme that offers moments of reflection alongside dazzling virtuosity. The album opens with Shostakovich’s imposing Piano Quintet, one of the composer’s most popular chamber works. Granados evokes a ‘Ghost’s Serenade’ with guitar-like effects in the exuberant finale to his Goyescas, while Prokofiev’s Four Études are among the most complex and technically challenging works of their kind. Malinin’s own inspired fantasy The Pearl Fishers, based on Nadir’s Romance from Les Pêcheurs de perles, serves as a fine encore, reimagining Bizet’s original in daring, compelling style.