Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; Ernő Dohnányi - Piano Concerto No. 1; Nursery Variations (Earl Wild)

Information

Composer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; Ernő Dohnányi

• Dohnányi - Variations on a Nursery theme, Op. 25
• Dohnányi - 6 Konzertetüden, Op. 28: 6. Cappriccio in F minor
• Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23

Earl Wild, piano

New Philharmonia Orchestra / Christoph von Dohnányi

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Anatole Fistoulari

Date: 1967; 1962

Label: Chesky

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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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Ernő Dohnányi (27 July 1877 – 9 February 1960) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and conductor. Dohnányi studied in Budapest at the Royal Academy of Music. As a pianist he traveled widely and established a reputation as one of the best performers of his day. In 1948 he left Hungary as a political exile and became a U.S. citizen in 1955. Dohnányi's music, which was chiefly influenced by Johannes Brahms, was late Romantic and conservative in style, and after 1910 he occupied only a minor place among contemporary Hungarian composers. His works include three symphonies, a ballet, three operas, and chamber works.

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Earl Wild (November 26, 1915 – January 23, 2010) was an American pianist. He studied under Selmar Janson, Marguerite Long, Egon Petri and Helene Barere, among others. Throughout his career, Wild was renowned for his virtuoso recitals and master classes held around the world, from Seoul, Beijing, and Tokyo to Argentina, England and throughout the United States. He created numerous virtuoso solo piano transcriptions, including 14 songs by Rachmaninoff (1981), and several works on themes by Gershwin, as well as transcriptions of Berlioz, Buxtehude, Chopin, Fauré, Saint-Saëns, and Tchaikovsky.

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