Search - Tchaikovsky :: Volume 5

A Pianistic Jewel

Niels Einstein | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 10/03/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"André Tchaikowsky, who died at 47 years old in 1982, was a prizewinner at the 1955 Chopin Competition in Warsaw and at the 1956 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium. Arthur Rubinstein considered him one of the finest pianists of his generation "not only a great pianist but a great musician", and promoted his career.André Tchaikowsky was more than just "another virtuoso pianist", he was a composer as well: string quartets (CD recorded by the Lindsay Quartet), piano works (CD recorded by Colin Stone) as well as a piano concerto (first performed by Radu Lupu) and an opera.In the 1960s, André made various recordings for Pathé Marconi in Paris - including a sensational Goldberg Variations which won a Grand Prix du Disque.This Mazurka record was part of a project for André to record the complete Mazurkas. He would terminate a recording session of, say, Mozart or Schubert by playing whatever Mazurka he felt inspired to play at that moment.André never finished the project, but what we have here on this CD are some of the Mazurkas he recorded in that period. They are performances full of poetry, spontaneity and the kind of insight that only a composer can have into the mind of another. This is great music making.Everyone I have played the CD to has been enchanted by it. This is a record that no lover of Chopin or of great piano playing should be without."