Mikhail Pletnev Returns to DG After Two Decades
His new album is the Yellow Label’s first
pure analogue (AAA) frontline release since the 1980s
The album documents Pletnev’s perspective on two landmarks of the
solo piano repertoire: Chopin’s Préludes, Op. 28 & Scriabin’s Préludes, Op. 11
It will be released on 5 December 2025 in all formats –
digital and CD as well as pure analogue vinyl
A live performance from Hamburg is available on STAGE+
“The spirit of music lies not inside, but outside the notes”
Mikhail Pletnev
Legendary Russian pianist Mikhail Pletnev has made his first studio album with Deutsche Grammophon since 2005. An artist whose musicianship has long been enriched by his work as conductor and composer, he performs two fascinating sets of preludes: Chopin’s Op. 28 and Scriabin’s Op. 11. Pletnev brings his incomparable art of nuance to these 48 works, revealing the individual character of each miniature in turn.
A first track from Chopin & Scriabin: Préludes, Scriabin’s Prélude No. 21 in B flat major, will be shared on 21 November 2025, and Pletnev’s live performance of the album repertoire filmed at Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle in May 2024 will be available to stream on STAGE+ from 15 November 2025.
Out on 5 December, the album was recorded on Pletnev’s beloved Shigeru Kawai piano in a single 4½‑hour session at Berlin’s Emil Berliner Studios in November 2024. While using an 11-channel microphone set-up for the high-resolution digital audio to be mixed for CD, download/streaming and Dolby Atmos versions, producer Rainer Maillard and his team simultaneously captured Pletnev’s performances on analogue master tapes – the first new 100% pure analogue DG recording since the 1980s. They employed two custom-made Sennheiser microphones, recorded on a tube Studer C37, then edited the various takes using the physical cut-and-paste sound engineering techniques of the tape era.
Inspired by the 48 preludes and fugues of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, Chopin set out on his own exploration of every major and minor key of the chromatic scale. His set of 24 Préludes, Op. 28, differs structurally from Bach’s, being organised in pairs of relative keys (C major/A minor) rather than in tonal parallels (C major/C minor). In the process of writing Op. 28, he redefined the prelude, transforming it from its original introductory function into an independent character piece.
Each of these miniatures sets its own vivid mood or paints an atmospheric scene, often in under a minute. While the 24 Préludes all work as standalone pieces, together they form a narrative on a grand scale, beginning in an expectant C major, ending in the darkness of D minor.
Scriabin was in turn inspired by Chopin, whose music he hugely admired. Written 50 years later (between 1888 and 1896), his Op. 11 set is structured in the same way as his idol’s Op. 28. It reflects the visionary Russian composer’s early musical language, based in late Romanticism, with glimpses of the harmonic experimentation that would characterise his later output.
Scriabin’s 24 Préludes too work as independent pieces in their own right. Taken as a whole, they present another collection full of contrast, from the continuous rapid motion of No. 3 in G major, Vivo, to the serene beauty of No. 21 in B flat major, Andante, or the drama of No. 24 in D minor, Presto.
