The Russian presentation of Denis Matsuev’s new recording of rare piano recital repertoire by Sergei Rachmaninoff, entitled "Unknown Rachmaninoff" took place on March, 4th, 2008 in the restaurant of Royal Thai Cuisine “Blue Elephant” (the world premier of the album passed on December, 4th, 2007 in London Carnegie Hall).
During the press conference that had passed in “Blue Elephant” several hours before the presentation Denis Matsuev was sharing his fantastic impressions on recording this album (the word “magic” sounded many times) on Rachmaninoff’s instrument in maestro’s estate at Switzerland.

By the 8 p.m. all the celebrity guests from every sphere of art, sport and television, business and politics were gathered under one starry sky of the Thai village just in the heart of Moscow to watch breathtaking performance of the genius’s works by outstanding Matsuev.

“Unknown Rachmaninoff” is in fact a mix of the familiar and newly discovered. And while the piano version of the D minor orchestral Suite is hardly characteristic, let alone vintage Rachmaninoff, it is played up to the hit by Matsuev. The D minor Fugue is a more convincing discovery with its prophecy of the E minor Moments musician demanding and receiving a red-hot virtuosity. Again, Matsuev may have you longing for the fuller 1913 version of the Second Sonata (incomparably recorded by Van Cliburn in a live performance taken from his great days in Moscow) but his playing blazes with such towering strength and conviction that he leaves you with virtually no grounds for complaint. His pace in the “Red Riding Hood” A minor Etude-Tableaux is hair-rising and the earlier Etude in the same key (the one likened to the seagull’s mournful cry) is given with a scale and romantic turbulence that declare the pianist’s nationality in every bar.