Pyotr Il’yich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
CD 1
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23 (Original Version, 1875) [35:00]
Concert Fantasy in G, Op. 56 [28:52]
Alternate ending, Concert Fantasy, Mvt. I [4:44]
CD 2
Piano Concerto No. 2 in G, Op. 44 [42:08]
Piano Concerto No. 3 in E flat, Op. 75 [15:36]
Jerome Lowenthal (piano)
London Symphony Orchestra/Sergiu Comissiona
rec. 31 May-1 June 1989 (Opp. 23, 56), 5-6 April 1987 (Opp. 44, 75), Abbey
Road Studio No. 1, London
budget price
BRIDGE RECORDS 9301A/B [68:36 + 57:44]
When this set arrived in the mail, I expected it to be a curiosity, for collectors
only. Red type on the front points out that these are “original versions”
of Tchaikovsky’s three piano concertos, intentionally omitting the edits and
revisions he made over the course of his lifetime. Would this prove to be
a gimmick or a stimulating musical adventure? I was happy to learn that the
latter is the case: these are warm, lyrical performances of the three concertos
and Concert Fantasy. Whether or not you want to hear the ‘original
versions’ (and the differences are so limited that it is hardly more than
a curiosity), this set of Tchaikovsky’s complete works for piano and orchestra
will afford much pleasure.
The new texts, receiving premiere recordings, are as follows: the First Piano
Concerto is given in its original state, before the edits suggested to Tchaikovsky
by various concert pianists; the Second Concerto is given in full, restoring
even the tiny cuts sanctioned by recent performers like Konstantin Scherbakov
(on Naxos); the Concert Fantasy’s first movement is delivered both
in the common version and with a five-minute ‘alternate ending’. But the joys
of finding differences between the ‘original versions’ recorded here and the
ones we all know so well are rather limited. The only real differences are
prudent edits Tchaikovsky made later on in his life at the suggestion of various
pianists, deleting a few seconds of unnecessary but interesting music from
the finale of the First Concerto, shortening the ending of the Second Concerto’s
slow movement, revising the piano parts somewhat, and simplifying orchestrations.
Only one major change will immediately strike listeners here, but it’s a big
one: the First Concerto’s legendary opening is not at all what we are used
to, those titanic piano chords replaced by quiet, sweeping rolling arpeggios
that are all-too-easily engulfed in the orchestral accompaniment. It is obvious
that, here at least, Tchaikovsky’s second thoughts were superior to his first.
But if the trumpeted ‘original versions’ are inferior to the revised editions,
what of it? These are still excellent performances! Jerome Lowenthal (b. 1932)
is a keyboard poet who prefers lyricism and elegance to raw virtuosity. He
is a pianist so effortlessly talented that he does not draw attention to himself
but to the music, and in that mindset he has a soulmate in conductor Sergiu
Comissiona (1928-2005), who leads the London Symphony Orchestra in a lively
dialogue with the soloist.
Highlights here are many: Lowenthal’s poetic work in all the slow movements,
his clear-headed approach to the first movement of the First Concerto, the
gorgeous violin and cello solos in the Second (courtesy violinist Michael
Davis and cellist Douglas Cummings), and the excellent pacing of the Second
Concerto’s finale, which is exciting and extravagantly cheerful without resorting
to the breakneck speeds at which Scherbakov dispatches the movement. True,
in some of the most difficult cascades of notes Lowenthal’s fingers sometimes
lose their way — in the Second Concerto’s titanic first-movement cadenzas,
some of the chords go awry — but these miscues never become obvious or shocking.
These are reissues of Arabesque recordings from the 1980s (Z6611; Z6583);
conductor Comissiona has since passed away, but Lowenthal is still going strong.
The recordings sound very good, although, exactly like the Scherbakov albums
on Naxos, the Second Concerto suffers from an odd problem in which the piano
and orchestra sound as if they were recorded in separate acoustics. I only
noticed this on headphones, however, and it was only a curiosity, not a problem.
Surprisingly, there are not too many complete sets of Tchaikovsky’s music
for piano and orchestra, especially after we discard the sets (like Emil Gilels’)
which contain needlessly cut versions of the Second Piano Concerto. The ones
that come to my mind are Peter Donohoe’s traversal with the Bournemouth Symphony
Orchestra and Rudolf Barshai, on EMI,
and Konstantin Scherbakov’s
accounts on Naxos,
with the Russian Philharmonic and Dmitry Yablonsky.
Maybe, compared to the competition, Lowenthal’s pianism is lacking the last
bit of technical perfection of a Konstantin Scherbakov or, in the First Concerto,
the individuality of a Yevgeny
Sudbin or a Martha Argerich. But Lowenthal offers his own rewards, not
least of them fantastic liner-notes he penned himself. The performances are
uniformly enjoyable, in a warm and good-natured way, with excellent contributions
by the London Symphony; the two CDs sell for the price of just one - and can
be had from American online shops for as cheaply as US$12. And even if you
have a set or two of these works already, the curiosity factor of hearing
Tchaikovsky’s original thoughts will carry weight; the alternate ending to
the first half of the Concert Fantasy alone represents nearly five
minutes of first class music which, for now, cannot be heard anywhere else.
Brian Reinhart