Tchaikovsky: The Seasons, Op. 37b: November (Troika)

The Christmas net is cast wide in this captivating collection of seasonal music.

John Fox has crafted a delightful Carol Fantasia. Bryan Kelly’s Scrooge is an action-packed Dickens compression, brought to visceral life by esteemed actor Simon Callow, who also narrates Philip Lane’s Another Night Before Christmas, an update by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy of the classic poem. Lane’s Old Christmas Music is expressively rich, and spans the centuries. Smaller pieces from Liszt, orchestrated by Gordon Jacob, Rebikov and more recent works, complete a delightful selection.

Rachmaninov’s reputation as a composer has waxed and waned over the years, but as a pianist he remains renowned, not least among other pianists, as one of the greatest. His perfect technique, utter clarity and discipline, and supreme musicianship shine undiminished through even his earliest recordings.

Ever the perfectionist, he would often set down multiple takes of even the shortest pieces (no fewer than 22 of Mendelssohn’s Spinning Song, for instance), carefully choosing only the best for release. His account of a selection of Beethoven’s 32 Variations in C minor WoO 80 effortlessly negotiates every nuance, from utmost delicacy to thunderous virtuosity, while his affinity for the Romantics is self-evident.

Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Ward Marston

This CD includes Rachmaninov’s Études-Tableaux Op.33 and Op.39, as well as many of Tchaikovsky’s piano works; Four Pieces from the cycle “The Seasons” Op.37, Nocturne in F major Op.10, Valse- Scherzo in A major Op.40, Humoresque Op.10, Capriccio Op.19 etc. The performances were recorded at the grand opening of the Rachmaninov Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, June 1983.

We have already featured Lev Oborin (on APR6005) playing Rachmaninov's second and third Concertos, and that he was entrusted with the first ever Soviet recordings of these works shows the status he held at that time. He studied with Igumnov at the Moscow Conservatory from the age of 14 and in 1927, at the age of 19, he won the first Chopin competition. From this time on until his death he was central to Russian musical life both as performer and teacher (he taught Vladimir Ashkenazy amongst many others). Oborin was the 'complete' pianist. He had a magnificent technique and seemed to be able to play any style of repertoire convincingly. He was also equally at home as soloist or chamber player, indeed in the West he is still perhaps better know as accompanist to the great violinist David Oistrakh due to the recordings they made together. The present CD presents Oborin as classicist in Beethoven, as the great Chopin interpreter, as virtuoso in the Liszt Rhapsody and as Russian lyricist in the Tchaikovsky. He is magnificent in all.