Andre Tchaikowsky: Two Piano Concertos & Piano Sonata – Peter Jablonski

This new album from pianist Peter Jablonski and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Lukasz Borowicz, features the world premiere recording of André Tchaikowsky’s 1st Piano Concerto, the first studio recording of the composer’s 2nd Piano Concerto, and his Piano Sonata.

The Polish-born British pianist and composer André Tchaikowsky studied composition in Warsaw and Paris, but it was his career as a concert pianist that ultimately earned him a name in the music world. Although composing always remained Tchaikowsky’s greatest passion, his music was rarely performed.

His Prokofiev-inspired 1st Piano Concerto was completed in 1957, created under the influence of his mentor, Arthur Rubinstein. The work’s premiere performance in Belgium in 1957 was a major event.

Tchaikowsky’s 2nd Piano Concerto, Op. 4, was performed in October 1975 by Radu Lupu and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Inspired by a play by Ibsen, this emotionally charged concerto is a powerful, complex, and extraordinarily difficult work in the spirit of Alban Berg and Béla Bartók, and has been praised by critics as one of the most remarkable piano concertos ever written.