Viktor Bunin was born in Voronezh in 1936. He graduated from Moscow Conservatoire (1961, the class of Samuil Feinberg) and completed his postgraduate studies in 1964 (the class of Viktor Merzhanov). His artistic career was influenced by his father, the composer Vladimir Bunin, a pupil of Anatoly Aleksandrov. “I’ve known Anatoly Nikolayevich Aleksandrov since my childhood, because he was a good friend of my father’s,” says Viktor Bunin. “He used to visit us, play his children’s pieces. He was always very attentive. As far back as I can remember, I had a great rapport with him, in spite of the age difference.” Sonata No.4 from this album has been in Bunin’s repertoire since his student days, and Aleksandrov always invited the pianist to participate in his concert-portraits. “Without imposing definite interpretations, Anatoly Nikolayevich described to me his imaginative associations of the music. They were often visual, quite concrete. Thus, for example, the introduction of transition in the first movement of Sonata No.4 was a suddenly emerging obstacle in the way of the turbulent, rapturous first subject which had developed to the heights of passion: “as if it hit a wall”. Initially Aleksandrov had planned to give names to the movements: ‘Impulse’ for the first, ‘Reflection’ for the second, ‘Fire’ for the third…” Bunin’s concert career was shaped in 1961, when he received the first prize of the Russian Competition of Performing Musicians. Since that time, he has actively performed both in Russia and abroad. He performed and made recordings with numerous Russian orchestras, including the Moscow State Philharmonic and the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra (now the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra). He worked with such conductors as Konstantin Ivanov, Boris Khaikin, Eduard Serov, Alexander Dmitriyev, Veronika Dudarova, Robert Satanovsky, Vasily Sinaisky, Gennady Cherkasov, Leonid Shulman, Edvard Chivzhel. Bunin was the first performer of many pieces written by contemporary composers: Anatoly Aleksandrov, Sergei Razoryonov, Vladimir Bunin (his father), Igor Rekhin, Igor Belorusets, Anatoly Bykanov and others. Bunin is deeply involved in pedagogic activities. Since 1963, he has been working at the Musical College of Moscow Conservatoire. For many years, he has taught at the conservatoires of Moscow (1964–1973), Syria (1970–72 and 1993–2000) and Lebanon (2000–2002). He was a jury member of Russian and international piano competitions, gave master classes in Russia and overseas (in the US, UK, Finland, Italy, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt). He is the honorary member of the “Feinberg-Skalkottas” International Society (Paris) and the Distinguished Artist of Russian Federation.