Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

2 CDs for 1

The Chopin Sonata No. 3 from BRIDGE9276A/D has been included again in order to present the complete recital in the order in which Ms. Reisenberg performed it.

30 CD + 1 CD ROM - CD-ROM contains notes on artists and concertos.

For anyone who loves the piano concerto, this 30CD set is a must-have. Containing the complete Beethoven cycle recorded by Brendel in the 1960s for Vox, the set also includes Tacchino’s pioneering set for the same label of the five Saint-Saëns concertos, and the complete Rachmaninoff concertos performed by Lugansky and Lill.

‘This performance gave me real pleasure. Brendel plays with a mixture of heart and head that is most satisfying, to which he adds countless touches of pianism that delight. He constantly throws light on the music by an interpretation that is clearly born of much thought about it and a deep understanding. The firstmovement is virile, the slow movement is most beautiful (I cannot imagine the solo opening better judged or more sympathetically played) and the finale goes at just the right speed, jaunty and pointed.’ Gramophone review, Brendel, Beethoven Concerto No.3

The 18th century is the starting point for this fabulous journey through the development of the piano concerto – Haydn’s delectable concertos and all Mozart’s 27, including the first four concertos. Kissin’s Tchaikovsky No.1 and Prokofiev No.3 can also be found here as well as his recording at the age of 12 of the two Chopin concertos, alongside rarities such as Field’s Concertos 5 & 6, and Weber’s three underrated concertos. Mendelssohn’s two brilliant concertos, the two huge masterworks by Brahms, Dvorák’s elusive G major Concerto with its beautiful slow movement, and the evergreen Schumann and Grieg ensure that this set will provide endless pleasure for the enthusiast.

Oleg Caetani succeeded Marcus Stenz as Chief Conductor and Artistic director of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He is a graduate of the St Petersburg Conservatory and has an interesting approach to Tchaikovsky’s music. He lets the composer speak and avoids the romantic trappings of over exaggerated rubato.

Radulovic’s recording of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto received excellent reviews: “Radulovic (taped live) soars aloft in these glorious pieces with a seamless purity guaranteed to set the heart fluttering and pulse racing.” Classic FM Magazine. This new CD is selling 200 copies per day in France and is receiving fantastic reviews in the French Music press.

The selection of songs and arias on this double SACD set reflect on the fundamental question of life and death and cover a period of almost two centuries, the composers featured ranging from Bach through to Tchaikovsky. They are performed by one of the great lyric tenors of our age Christophe Prégardien, accompanied by the pianist Michael Gees. The common theme in the music of this recording is the most fundamental of all, existence itself, life and death. The composers represented are Bach, Mahler, Schubert, Schumann, Mozart, Brahms, Loewe, Wolf, Mendelssohn, and Tchaikovsky. The songs and arias performed here range over almost two centuries with eleven compositions and many musical forms, the simple song with piano accompaniment, the narrative, expansive ballad, the great opera aria and more.

Christoph Prégardien is widely regarded as among the foremost lyric tenors of our time and frequently collaborates with conductors such as Ricardo Chailly, John Elliot Gardiner, Nicolaus Harnoncourt, and Phillipe Herreweghe. He is represented on disc with more than a hundred and twenty titles, including most of his current repertoire. His recordings of German Romantic Lied repertory, particularly his recent releases on Challenge Classics of Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin, (CC72292), and Schwanengesang, (CC72302), have been highly acclaimed by the public and press and have received many major international awards.

Lang Lang revisits two stellar exponents of Russia’s Romantic musical soul, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, to reveal another side of his prodigious talent—his finesse as a collegial interpreter of chamber music.

Making the big news of Lang Lang‘s first ever chamber music recording bigger, joining him on the violin and cello are two giants of their instruments: Vadim Repin and Mischa Maisky. Lang Lang could not be in better company to reveal the inexhaustible inventiveness of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio No. 50 in A minor or the tender consolations of Rachmaninov’s Trio élégiaque in G-minor, a short early masterpiece composed before Rachmaninov was twenty.

Extensive booklet with notes on each work by Ate?s Orga.

A must-have for lovers of chamber music.

‘Oistrakh plays with the authority we know so well, Knushevitsky, who has a part of predominant importance and sometimes of great difficulty, mostly plays beautifully, and Oborin is excellent. The ensemble of the soloists is superbly good.’ Gramophone reviewing the Beethoven Triple Concerto conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent in 1959

For a quarter of a century from its foundation in 1940, the Oistrakh Trio was the premiere ensemble of its kind in the Soviet Union. All three members were close friends, having trained and studied together during the Stalin years.

They blossomed in the comparatively more relaxed Khrushchev period, championing the great Austro-German and Slavonic repertoire for piano trio.

Never afraid to speak out against injustices in the USSR, they championed composers who were suffering under the oppressive regime – hence the movement from Shebalin’s Trio included on this set. The recordings date from 1947 to 1958, and capture this extraordinary group of musicians at the top of their game.

Tchaikovsky wrote relatively little chamber music. Three string quartets, the Piano Trio and the Sextet form the bulk of his chamber music, and all the quartets date from before his 40th year. He had attempted a quartet as early as 1865, and the expansive opening movement is all that remains, and it is included in this set.

The Quartet No.1 created quite a stir at its premiere in 1871, not only because the audience included the great novelist Turgenev, but also due to the fact that it was actually the first string quartet by a Russian composer. The second movement, Andante cantabile, has become one of the composer’s best loved tunes, and when Tolstoy heard it some five years after the premiere he was moved to tears. Interestingly Tchaikovsky used a traditional folk song tune that has some especially trite words about a drunk tempting a maiden to bed! The Third Quartet has a grief-stricken slow movement with a specially memorable melody, written as a tribute to the Czech violinist Ferdinand Laub who had died in 1875. Laub had taken part in the premieres of the First and Second Quartets and had become a close friend of the composer. The great String Sextet dates from 1890, just after Tchaikovsky had completed his opera The Queen of Spades – he was exhausted and under great pressure. Although written when the composer was in Florence, the work is a truly Russian one, with little or no Italian influences. This 2CD set is rounded off with some early works for string combinations, all dating from 1873/4. They are all delightfully melodic and charming.

David Oistrakh’s 1967 performance of Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 2 with Eugene Ormandy conducting the LSO was the Western European Premiere of the work. This is a major historical document.

Since this was a Gala concert in aid of the LSO Trust, the Shostakovich performance was preceded by a Fanfare composed by Arthur Bliss and this has been included.

The Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto from 1972, a work very much associated David Oistrakh, was performed during a Russian Festival in London’s Royal Albert Hall is conducted by Maxim Shostakovich, the composer’s son. This makes a great combination.

Both recordings are in very good stereo and David Oistrakh’s playing is sensational.

David Oistrakh has a large and varied BBC Legends catalogue including a later version of the Shostakovich Violkin Concerto No.2 with Svetlanov (BBCL40602).