Nikolai Medtner; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Piano Concertos (Yevgeny Sudbin)

Information

Composer: Nikolai Medtner; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

1. Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23: I. Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso
2. Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23: II. Andantino simplice
3. Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23: III. Allegro con fuoco
4. Medtner - Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Op. 33: Allegro -
5. Medtner - Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Op. 33: Tranquillo, meditamente -
6. Medtner - Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Op. 33: Tempo I -
7. Medtner - Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Op. 33: Coda. Allegro molto
8. Medtner - Liebliches Kind!, from Nine Goethe Songs, Op. 6 (trans. Yevgeny Sudbin)

Yevgeny Sudbin, piano
São Paulo Symphony Orchestra
John Neschling, conductor

Date: 2007
Label: BIS
http://bis.se/performers/sudbin-yevgeny/tchaikovsky-medtner-first-piano-concertos

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Review

Tchaikovsky renewed in this dream concerto debut disc

To describe 26-year-old Yevgeny Sudbin as music’s brightest young star pianist is in a sense to do him a disservice. For he is above all an artist, and here in his eagerly awaited concerto debut on disc he gives us a Tchaikovsky First of spine-tingling brilliance, poetry and vivacity. This is never the Tchaikovsky you have always known, but an arrestingly novel rethink with the concentration on mercurial changes of mood and direction. Here, amazingly, is one of the most familiar of all concertos rekindled in all its first glory, brimming over with zest and shorn of all the clichés that have adhered to it over the years.

In the first movement Sudbin’s octaves ring out at 10'18" like a giant carillon, while the Andantino’s central prestissimo becomes in such extraordinary hands a true firefly scherzo. Not even Cherkassky at his finest possesed a more elfin sense of difference or caprice. And to think that all this and more is accomplished without the lift, or hindrance, of a major competition success.

Medtner’s massive First Concerto, too, could hardly be played with a more burning clarity and committment. Once wittily if misleadingly described as “a declaration of love in the language of the First Empire”, Medtner’s music remains formidably inaccessible, despite displaying the outward trappings of Romantic rhetoric. Yet Sudbin clearly believes in every note and his playing evinces, as on live occasions, a rare sense of affection. Such poetry is confirmed in his encore, his own transcription of Medtner’s Liebliches Kind! from his Op 6 songs. It only remains to add that BIS’s balance and sound are of demonstration quality and that the São Paulo SO under John Neschling sound as if influenced by neighbouring Rio’s carnival spirit, so infectiously do they respond to their radiant soloist.

-- Bryce Morrison, Gramophone

More reviews:
ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 9 / SOUND QUALITY: 10
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2007/May07/Tchaikovsky_Sudbin_bissacd1588.htm
http://www.allmusic.com/album/piano-concertos-by-tchaikovsky-medtner-mw0001419917
https://www.amazon.com/Piano-Concerto-1-Tchaikovsky/dp/B000NOK9Q8

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Nikolai Medtner (5 January 1880 [O.S. 24 December 1879] – 13 November 1951) was a Russian composer and pianist. A younger contemporary of Rachmaninoff and Scriabin, he wrote a substantial number of compositions, all of which include the piano. His works include fourteen piano sonatas, three violin sonatas, three piano concerti, a piano quintet, two works for two pianos, many shorter piano pieces, a few shorter works for violin and piano, and 108 songs including two substantial works for vocalise. Despite his conservative musical tastes, Medtner's compositions and his pianism were highly regarded by his contemporaries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Medtner

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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (25 April/7 May 1840 – 25 October/6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the romantic period who wrote some of the most popular music in the classical repertoire. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote many works that are popular with the classical music public, including his Romeo and Juliet, the 1812 Overture, three ballets, last three symphonies, the 1st Piano Concerto and the Violin Concerto. Despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovsky's life was punctuated by personal crises and depression.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyotr_Ilyich_Tchaikovsky

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Yevgeny Sudbin (born 19 April 1980 in St. Petersburg) is a Russian pianist. He studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, the Purcell School and the Royal Academy of Music. Among his teachers are Christopher Elton, Murray Perahia, Leon Fleisher, Stephen Kovacevich, Dmitri Bashkirov, Fou Ts'ong and Stephen Hough. Sudbin's recordings of music by Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Medtner, Scarlatti and Scriabin for BIS have met with critical acclaim and are regularly featured as CD of the Month by BBC Music Magazine or Editor’s Choice by Gramophone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Sudbin
http://www.yevgenysudbin.com/

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