Alexander Scriabin; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Piano Concertos (Nikolai Demidenko)

Information

Composer: Alexander Scriabin

1. Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23: 1. Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso - Allegro con spirito
2. Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23: 2. Andantino simplice - Prestissimo - Andantino simplice
3. Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23: 3. Allegro con fuoco - Molto meno mosso - Allegro vivo
4. Scriabin - Piano Concerto in F sharp minor, Op. 20: 1. Allegro
5. Scriabin - Piano Concerto in F sharp minor, Op. 20: 2. Andante - Allegro scherzando - Adagio - Allegretto - Tempo I
6. Scriabin - Piano Concerto in F sharp minor, Op. 20: 3. Allegro moderato

Nikolai Demidenko, piano
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Alexander Lazarev, conductor

Date: 1994
Label: Hyperion
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDH55304

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Review

PERFORMANCE: ***** / SOUND: *****

It is something of a major achievement when one manages to hear afresh such an over-familiar work as Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto. But this is exactly what happens with Demidenko. He has a rare ability to project poetic resonances in the music that are so often overlooked by other pianists. In doing this, he can occasionally be wilful with some of Tchaikovsky’s precise phrasing and dynamics, and the tempo in the Allegro con spirito section of the first movement may seem a little too expansive. But I’d wager that the composer himself would have approved of a performance that eschews bombast and demonstrates such a creativity of approach. Lazarev and the BBC Symphony Orchestra offer sterling support throughout, and the beautifully balanced recording allows one to hear much fascinating inner detail. Similar qualities abound in the performance of Scriabin’s youthful and sometimes Chopinesque concerto. It’s a work that doesn’t deserve to languish in comparative obscurity, and Demidenko gives as convincing an account of the solo part as Ashkenazy on a much admired Decca release. Here one can savour the full range of Demidenko’s pianism, from the dreamy reflectiveness of the magical coda of the slow movement to the powerfully triumphant chords that bring the work to an impressive close.

-- Erik Levi, BBC Music Magazine

More reviews:
http://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/tchaikovskyscriabin-piano-concertos

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2007/Dec07/Tchaikovsky_Scriabin_cdh55304.htm
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scriabin-Tchaikovsky-Concertos-Nikolai-Demidenko/dp/B000WE5G4E
http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Concerto-Op-20/dp/B000002ZTE

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Alexander Scriabin (6 January 1872 [O.S. 25 December 1871] – 27 April [O.S. 14 April] 1915) was a Russian composer and pianist. Scriabin was one of the most innovative and most controversial of early modern composers, and is considered by some to be the main Russian Symbolist composer. Independently of Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed a substantially atonal and much more dissonant musical system. He was influenced by synesthesia, and associated colours with the various harmonic tones of his atonal scale. Scriabin had a major impact on the music world, and influenced composers such as Stravinsky and Prokofiev.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Scriabin

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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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Nikolai Demidenko (born July 1, 1955, Aniskino) is a Soviet-Russian-born classical pianist. Demidenko studied at the Moscow Gnessin School with Anna Kantor and at the Moscow Conservatoire under Dmitri Bashkirov. In addition to a vast amount of the standard Germanic and Russian repertory, he is a specialist of Frédéric Chopin and a noted champion of the works of neglected composers, such as Carl Maria von Weber and Nikolai Medtner, as well as neglected works of well-known composers. Demidenko has been a resident in the UK since 1990, and won a Gramophone Award in 1992.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Demidenko

http://www.demidenko.net/

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