Boris Tchaikovsky Society: www.bt_ms.da.ru
The Boris Tchaikovsky
Society's efforts are paying dividends
when you realise the boom in the number
of Tchaikovsky CDs being issued. His
name is of course memorable and naturally
intriguing. It helps that when you encounter
the music it has Shostakovich blood-links
without direct replication. Interestingly
his teachers in Moscow were Shebalin
and Miaskovsky, both fairly conservative
figures, and Shostakovich - a great
original. His piano professor was Lev
Oborin.
The wartime First Sonata
breathes sturdy conflict, surreal pained
contemplation and then a gauntly joyous
finale - heck it almost smiles! The
language is not a million miles from
that of Shostakovich; it certainly is
not Shebalin or Miaskovsky. The DSCH
lineage continues into the Bachian machine
rhythms and lyric liberation in the
1952 Second Sonata. Romantic freedom
asserts itself in total immersion in
the touching Ravel-like piacevole
of the Largo which could easily
find itself in the Classic FM Top 100.
The Eight Pieces are
all short character sketches, charming
or fun or both. Memorable are the pattering
of First Rain and the grand ballroom
Romanza. Autumn Day is surprisingly
cloud-hung and downbeat in this company.
Pentatonica is subtitled ‘Six light
pieces’. Again these are didactic miniatures
painted with life and imagination. The
River Flows has an Oriental watercolour
feel to it rather like Bantock's Chinese
Pictures. Natural Modes brings more
of the same although the music is emotionally
stilted and less imaginative than in
the other two sets. Dissonance is not
an issue here. The microscopic Sonatina
starts with a dissonance and is a closer
cousin to the two sonatas and to Rachmaninov's
hauteur. It becomes extremely romantic
and its troika rhythm recalls Sergei's
famous Prelude; a sonata with both gravity
and a grin.
This disc will appeal
strongly to those who have developed
a taste for Boris Tchaikovsky. Their
interests are very well served by both
Solovieva and by Albany's recording
team. It is most provocatively characteristic
in the sonatas and sonatina. The other
pieces are utilitarian, not devoid of
charm and life but not essential listening
either.
Rob Barnett
Olga Solovieva (piano) 
