Composer: André Tchaikowsky
Performer: Maciej Grzybowzki, Jakob Fichert, Nico de Villiers
Orchestra: Wiener Symphoniker
Conductor: Paul Daniel
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Toccata
Catalogue: TOCC0204
Release: 2013
Size: 232 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Piano Concerto, Op. 4
01. I. Introduction. Grave
02. II. Passacaglia. Lento liberamente
03. III. Capriccio. Vivace con malizia
Inventions, Op. 2
04. No. 1, Allegretto tranquillo
05. No. 2, Adagio serio
06. No. 3, Leggiero e vivace
07. No. 4, Velocissimo
08. No. 5a. Semplice
09. No. 5b. Placido
10. No. 6, Con umore
11. No. 7, Allegretto scherzando
12. No. 8, Vivacissimo
13. No. 9, Brusco
14. No. 10, Lento transparente
Piano Sonata
15. I. Non troppo presto
16. II. Largo
17. II. Piano e veloce
André Tchaikowsky (1935–82), Polish-born but based in Britain, hit the headlines when he left his skull to the Royal Shakespeare Company for use in productions of Hamlet – even appearing on a postage stamp with David Tennant.
He survived the Nazi occupation of Warsaw hidden in a cupboard for two years.
Although Tchaikowsky – no relation to Pyotr Tchaikovsky – was one of the finest pianists of his era, his true calling was as a composer.
This first conspectus of his piano music features the first recording of his powerful, craggy Piano Concerto (1973–75), the epigrammatic Inventions he dedicated to a series of friends and his only mature Piano Sonata – evidence of the magnitude of the loss from his early death from cancer, aged only 46.
Tchaikowsky’s music is being rediscovered: his only opera The Merchant of Venice was premiered during the Bregenz Festival this year, and this CD, the first of a series, is released in conjunction with the publication by Toccata Press of A Musician Divided: André Tchaikowsky in his Own Words, an annotated edition of his candid diaries.