Juraj Valcuha

Behzod Abduraimov, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai, Juraj Valcuha – Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1; Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.3 (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:04:20 minutes | 1,14 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Decca Music Group Ltd.

Completed in 1921 in a rural summer retreat at Étretat on the coast of Normandy, the Third Piano Concerto nevertheless contains not a hint of anything that could be called pastoral. It is one of those works that seem to reflect not the actual surroundings of the moment, but a quite other environment that the composer is hankering after. The atmosphere it breathes is of a world that Prokofiev had left only temporarily: the world of musical centres, busy concert life, excitement, exuberant virtuosity, and applause.

The First Piano Concerto is one of the most popular of all Tchaikovsky’s works, to the extent that it has completely eclipsed the other two concertos for piano. A skillful mixture of ardour and melancholy, of simple Ukrainian folk tunes and brilliant passage work, of wistful melodies and waves of orchestral sound worthy of a symphony. One might criticize it for an excess of grandiloquence, but one cannot deny its success in at least two respects: the variety of its inspiration and the verve of the piano part, which guarantees an instant triumph to any virtuoso capable of playing it.

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