Tchaikovsky; Piano Concerto No. 1 / Medtner: Piano Concerto No. 1 / Liebliches Kind!

Featuring

John Neschling
Yevgeny Sudbin
Cláudio Cruz
Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Nikolai Medtner

Did you know?

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Composer's Artistic Vision

Rachmaninov, a close friend and admirer of Medtner, once stated that Medtner was "too much of an individual to bear resemblance to anyone except the Russian composer Medtner."

Compositional Technique

The mercurial middle section of Tchaikovsky's Second Piano Concerto movement is based on a French song, "Il faut s'amuser, danser et rire," sung by soprano Désirée Artôt, to whom Tchaikovsky was once engaged.

Composition History

Medtner's First Piano Concerto was composed during World War I, with its orchestration taking the entire war to complete, and it is dedicated to his mother, Alexandra Medtner, who died of pneumonia during this period.

Critical Reception

Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto was initially deemed "worthless… vulgar… hackneyed… unplayable" by the renowned pianist Nikolai Rubinstein at its premiere.

Performer Biography

Conductor John Neschling is the grand-nephew of both the composer Arnold Schoenberg and the conductor Arthur Bodanzky.

Composition History

Despite initial criticism, Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto became one of the most recorded works of all time, with at least 149 commercially available recordings at the time of writing.

Compositional Technique

Medtner's First Piano Concerto opens with what the composer described as "five atomic bombs" or falling octaves, symbolizing the sudden eruption of World War I.