Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 3 in E flat major

The Romantic Piano Concerto series reaches Volume 50. This series has been described as a jewel in Hyperion’s crown and one of the glories of the recording industry. Rarely in the history of recorded music has such a rich seam of undiscovered delights been mined to such consistently dazzling effect. These first fifty volumes include 131 works for piano and orchestra: fifty-nine of these works are premiere recordings and many other featured works have only been recorded once before. The performers include some of the greatest pianists, orchestras and conductors in the world, and each disc in itself is a miracle of virtuosity, scholarship and musicianship.

For Volume 50, a stellar cast has been assembled for a two-disc set that includes, unusually, one of the most famous concertos in the repertoire. Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 1 has certainly achieved warhorse status—but in the expert hands of Stephen Hough it is a new creature. With the rest of this fascinating two-disc set we are in more usual RPC territory, with music which is actually not widely known. This is a complete survey of Tchaikovsky’s music for piano and orchestra and includes alternative versions of the second movement of Piano Concerto No 2 as well as some delicious extras.

Stephen Hough performed all four concertos at the BBC Proms in 2009 and was described as ‘the epitome of a “golden age” virtuoso with his balletic elegance and dazzling rhythmic reflexes’ (The Independent). Armed with this inestimably important experience, he travelled to Minnesota to record the set live with the Minnesota Orchestra under their acclaimed conductor Osmo Vänskä. The result is a set of unique importance: a winning combination of a pianist at the zenith of his artistry, a world-class orchestra and director, a pre-eminent producer and engineer, repertoire both familiar and unknown, and packaged with even more than the usual care that customers have come to expect from Hyperion.

Tchaikovsky wrote four works for piano and orchestra: the three concertos, and the Concert Fantasy in G Op.56 (1884). The First Concerto ranks today as possibly the most famous piano concerto ever composed. Its entry into the world was, however, far from easy. Dismissed by critics as a flop, and by its dedicatee Nikolai Rubinstein as unplayable – which caused a rift between Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky, the concerto was premiered in Boston in the USA in 1875, and the dedicatee was Hans von Bülow, who conducted the performance with Benjamin Johnson Lang as soloist. Its success was never in doubt from then on. Rubinstein relented and undertook to champion the concerto. It is a large, dramatic work with its roots firmly in the Chopin/Mendelssohn school.

The underrated Second Concerto (1880) was for many years performed in a cut version made by Tchaikovsky’s pupil Siloti. This cut the jewel of the concerto – the ‘triple concerto’-like second movement for violin, cello and piano. Happily the recording in this set is of the original version. It is a very strong work, with great tunes and a tremendously virtuosic solo part – the huge cadenza in the first movement is especially impressive.

The Third Concerto (1893) – today only performed as a one-movement Konzertstück was created out of the abandoned Seventh Symphony in E major. The first movement of both concerto and symphony are almost identical, but then Tchaikovsky wrote an Andante and finale (orchestrated by Taneyev) as the other two movements, but abandoned these as well in favour of the one-movement work we hear today. The Third Concerto is technically very challenging for the performer, and contains some wonderful music.

Recording made in 1982

Booklet notes

2 CDs for 1

This marvelous two disc set brings back into the catalogue Jerome Lowenthal's superb readings of all four of the works that Tchaikovsky wrote for piano and orchestra.

The recordings focus on Tchaikovsky's original, uncut scores in virtuoso performances by Lowenthal, accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra, directed by the late Sergiu Comissiona.

The recordings, made in the late 1980s, were originally released on Arabesque. Both discs have been re-mastered for this release by Grammy-winning engineer, Adam Abeshouse.

60 CD + CD-ROM

A high voltage set capturing the inner passion of the Russian soul, from the light-footed ballets to the tormented Pathetique Symphony, from a delicate song to the explosions of Overture 1812, the Tchaikovsky Edition includes the complete symphonies, complete concertos, complete ballets, complete suites, complete piano works, complete string quartets, complete songs and 8 operas (sung in Russian, by Russian singers)

Includes performances of legendary Russian artists, such as Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, David Oistrakh, Leonid Kogan, Evgeny Kissin, and conductors Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Evgeny Mravinsky, Yuri Simonov, Vladimir Fedoseyev.

Includes rare historical recordings of great collector’s value.

A comprehensive survey of Tchaikovsky’s output, spanning 60CDs with a CD-ROM containing comprehensive booklet notes, and sung texts.

This set also contains historical recordings from great interpreters including Ernest Ansermet in performances of the 6th Symphony and the three great ballets. Byron Janis plays the 1st Piano Concerto, Shura Cherkassky in the 2nd, and Michael Ponti in the Taneyev reconstruction of the 3rd concerto. The Oistrakh Trio perform the Piano Trio, The 1st concerto again in performances by Lev Oborin and Emil Gilels, Sviatoslav Richter and Yevgeny Kissin. Leonid Kogan and David Oistrakh can be heard in the Violin Concerto.

In addition to these fascinating documents the 6 symphonies, all the chamber music, songs and piano works can be heard in modern recordings. The operas are presented in historical Russian recordings from the Bolshoi with some great Russian voices of the 20th century.