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

Information

Composer: Alexander Scriabin; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

• Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23
• Scriabin - Piano Concerto in F sharp minor, Op. 20

Nikolai Demidenko, piano

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Alexander Lazarev, conductor

Date: 1994

Label: Hyperion

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Review

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

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Alexander Scriabin (6 January 1872 – 27 April 1915) was a Russian composer and pianist, renowned for his innovative contributions to classical music. He studied at the Moscow Conservatory under Anton Arensky, Sergei Taneyev and Vasily Safonov. Scriabin composed almost exclusively for solo piano and for orchestra. Initially influenced by Romanticism, his style evolved into more abstract and mystical realms, incorporating complex harmonies and unconventional scales. His most famous compositions include piano works like Etudes, Preludes, and Sonatas, as well as his symphonic work Prometheus: The Poem of Fire. 

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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Romantic Russian composer. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the current classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto, the Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy, several symphonies, and the opera Eugene Onegin. Despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovsky's life was punctuated by personal crises and depression.

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Nikolai Demidenko (born 1 July 1955) is a Russian-born classical pianist. He studied at the Gnessin State Musical College with Anna Kantor and at the Moscow Conservatoire under Dmitri Bashkirov. He taught at the Yehudi Menuhin School in the UK, where he has been a resident since 1990. In addition to a vast amount of the standard Germanic and Russian repertory, Demidenko is a specialist of Frédéric Chopin and a noted champion of the works of neglected composers such as Muzio Clementi, Carl Maria von Weber, Jan Václav Voříšek, and Nikolai Medtner. His extensive discography consists of nearly 40 CDs.

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