TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 3

Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR Katowice);
Wit, Antoni;
Glemser, Bernd

8.550819

The single-movement Third Piano Concerto, and the unfinished Andante and Finale, date from the time of the Pathétique Symphony and the last months of Tchaikovsky's life. Intended for the French pianist Louis Diemer, Teacher of Casadesus, Cortot and d'Indy, but in fact first performed by Taneyev in St Petersburg on 7th January 1895, the Concerto drew on discarded sketches for an unfinished symphony in E flat (1892) - a work since reconstructed by Semyon Bogatyryev (Moscow 1961). Tchaikovsky's withering judgement of this symphony was that it had been "written for the sake of writing something, and contains nothing interesting or appealing". No matter, he successfully mined it has to fashion what has been called" an undeservedly neglected Russian piano concerto of considerable appeal" Jeremy Norris, 1994). In so doing, he adhered closely to his first ideas, but added new material in the form of a solo cadenza (elaborating the second subject), unclassically placed between the development section and reprise, like all such Tchaikovsky moments, a focal point of the drama.

CD

Muzyka klasyczna

Naxos

12-08-1996

730099581929