A recording was made at night in the St. Leodegar Hofkirche (Court Church) in Lucerne, transforming the sacred space itself into a resonating body. The church’s distinctive acoustics lend the sound a spatial depth and transparency that become an integral part of the interpretation—captured in the silence of the night, when the space can unfold its natural acoustic qualities undisturbed.

The program brings together three central works of the piano repertoire. Ravel’s “Gaspard de la nuit” combines technical virtuosity with great tonal variety. Liszt’s Sonata in B minor is considered one of the most significant single-movement masterpieces in the repertoire and challenges the pianist for just under thirty minutes. Debussy’s “Images” (Book I) explores timbres and expression at the limits of what can be portrayed.

Demyashkin, who was named a Steinway Artist by Steinway & Sons in 2012, studied at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and now teaches there as well as at the Zurich Conservatory of Music.

For the recording, the Steinway D grand piano was deliberately positioned in reverse, with the opening facing away from the nave, in order to direct as many early reflections as possible onto the main and support microphones and achieve a full, round sound. The chosen mix perspective places the listener in the position of a concertgoer in the choir: close to the instrument, enveloped by the church’s natural room sound. Sound engineer Mirjam Rogger captured the natural acoustics of the Hofkirche in a high-resolution multichannel recording. In collaboration with sound engineer Lasse Nipkow, the immersive 3D mixes were created on a 9.1.6 setup; the mastering for Dolby Atmos, Auro-3D, and DTS-HD MA was carried out by Ronald Prent in New York.

The nighttime conditions significantly shaped the outcome, partly due to temperature fluctuations in the church that required the piano to be retuned daily. “The night gave me a depth that stays hidden during the day,” Demyashkin describes the special atmosphere of the sessions.

The Pure Audio Blu-ray includes the recording in Dolby Atmos (9.1.6), 11.1 Auro-3D, and 5.1 DTS-HD MA, each at 96 kHz/24-bit, as well as in high-resolution stereo. An accompanying CD rounds out the edition.