The Russian composer
Tikhon Nikolayevich Khrennikov was born
on 10 June 1913.
He has written three symphonies, four
piano concertos, two violin concertos,
two cello concertos, operas, operettas,
ballets, chamber music, incidental music
and film music. He studied composition
in Moscow with Shebalin and piano with
Heinrich Neuhaus. His Piano Concerto
No. 1 is a product of his student days.
The Symphony No. 1 was his graduation
exercise. His activities since 1948
as Secretary of the Union
of Soviet Composers drew down considerable
wrath for his criticism of Miaskovsky,
Prokofiev
and Shostakovich.
He remained Secretary until the collapse
of the USSR. In 2003 UNESCO awarded
him the Mozart Medal.
You need to discard
your neatly parcelled up preconceptions
before hearing this disc. We are all
so conditioned to expect dross from
those condemned by the victor’s history.
Whatever the rights and wrongs we would
do well to listen to the music and forget
the irrelevant ad hominem arguments.
That’s why Robert Simpson’s BBC Radio
3 Innocent Ear programme was
such a refreshing experience – in it
he would play a piece without announcing
what it was until the music was over.
The four movement First
Concerto is a pretty early piece
from heady times for the young student
composer. Its combination of brusque
muscular virtuosity partakes somewhat
of the cut glass writing of Prokofiev
in his later piano concertos. This is
viscerally exciting writing which Shostakovich
is perhaps parodying in the last movement
of his Second Piano Concerto of 1960.
There is a most poetic slow movement
whose drum roll final note runs attacca
into the detonation and propulsion of
the Allegro third movement. The transition
is bumpy and clipped on this recording.
The finale’s peaceful introduction makes
a deeply satisfying incision into steppe
loneliness carolled out by clarinet
and bassoon before more gripping virtuosity
akin to the scherzo-adrenaline of Shostakovich’s
First Piano Concerto and the piano concertos
of Kabalevsky. However Khrennikov plies
the listener with meditative romantic
Miaskovsky-like asides amid the headlong
assaults. The short Second Concerto
is in a compact three movement form
with the first dominated by an unflinching
and hammered out romantic virtuosity
from the pianist. This gives way to
a quiet shuddering that ushers in the
central Allegro con fuoco movement
which is all scintillating virtuosity
again somewhat in the manner we know
by derivation from Shostakovich 2. Once
again the transition from I to II is
bumpy. The gawky grotesque humour of
the Rondo Giocoso but topped off with
some crystalline romance and strutted
balletic bombast. It ends remarkably
with the same shiver and shudder that
ended the first movement. No resort
is made to obvious heroic gesture. The
Third Concerto opens with a sentimental
theme over which the piano pounds out
a coasting ‘remora’ or quasi-echo of
that theme. The piano trips the gymnastic
fantastic. The orchestra joins in with
more cheerfulness than has been evident
in the other two concertos. The movement
ends with a wonderfully atmospheric
shimmer and this time there is no bump
before we enter the Miaskovskian soft
romance of the Moderato. Soon though
the emotional heat climbs through the
effortful emphasis of the piano solo.
This rises to an eruption of some brazen
Soviet majesty and braying minatory
brass. The trajectory of the music takes
us back to the same music with which
the movement began. The finale is bell-like
and optimistic with a few stunningly
brazen moments and spectacular work
from the soloist. This concerto was
recorded live. There are one or two
coughs and well-merited applause at
the close.
All three concertos
were toured by the composer across the
Soviet Union and his mastery as a soloist
is patent.
The Fourth Concerto
is available on Kapelmeister KAP 012.
The recording is extremely
immediate with the orchestra placed
very close – almost in the listener’s
lap.
The extensive notes
are in Russian and English – side by
side. The print is rather small but
do persist.
Perhaps you have been
enjoying the Kabalevsky piano concerto
series from Naxos or Russian Revelation
or Chandos or the Shostakovich piano
concertos on Sony or Hyperion or EMI
Classics. If so and you would like to
explore similar repertoire with some
unusual and provocative turns then do
try out this disc.
Rob Barnett
Other Khrennikov reviews on this site:-
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Apr06/KHRENNIKOV_KAP008.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Aug03/Khrennikov_concertos.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/Oct04/Khrennikov.htm
for
details 
Tikhon Khrennikov (piano) 
