New CDs from Profil Medien and Divox

The year 2012 started with two new CDs with the music of Boris Tchaikovsky.

I. First of all, it is CD with Violin Concerto and Violin Sonata from Profil Medien, Guenter Haenssler Edition. The recordings (licensed by Melodiya) are the same as on the old LP, but carefully digitized and remastered. This is the third CD from Profil Medien with Boris Tchaikovsky's music - first was "Theme and Eight Variations" premiere performance recording (Staatskapella Dresden with great Kirill Kondrashin), then Second Symphony (also premiere performance recording, also with Kirill Kondrashin) coupled with piano pieces with composer at piano.

And now - long waited Sonata for Violin and Piano (first appearance of Sonata on the CD), performed by Victor Pikaizen and Boris Tchaikovsky, and first studio recording of Violin Concerto with it's first performers - Victor Pikaizen, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Kirill Kondrashin.

II. Soon the new recording of Cello Sonata will come from the Swiss label Divox, which is specialized on the chamber music.
The recording was made by excellent musicians Emil Rovner (cello) and Alla Ivanzhina (piano). Also the 24 Preludes for solo cello by Weinberg are on the CD.

As each CD from Divox, the new CD is a special production, a result of love to music and real enthusiasm.

There are already few versions of Cello Sonata in Boris Tchaikovsky discography, two of them - with composers at piano (with cellists Mstislav Rostropovich and Alla Vassilieva).
The new CD (Divox is also famous with its approach to sound) definitely need to be in the collection of every Boris Tchaikovsky music admirers. New generation of musicians, who took the enthusiasm from their teachers (Emil Rovner's teacher was Ivan Monighetti, who earlier studied with great Mstislav Rostropovich), entered their energy and mastery to this recording, and result is increased by contemporary technical approach to sound recording.

In Memoriam: Vadim Nikolaevich IVANOV

Another huge loss in the world of classical music ... At the morning on 5th of November 2011 an outstanding sound engineer and producer Vadim Ivanov died after  a long illness...

Vadim IVANOV

He was one of the best professionals in the field of classical recordings in USSR, and later in Russia. His numerous recordings appeared on such labels as Naxos, Toccata Classics, Hyperion, Chandos, Chant du Monde, Harmonia Mundi, Fuga Libera, Relief, Melodiya, Russian Season, Albany Records, and other (here is the list of some of his recordings). He worked with almost all Russian leading musicians. 


The Boris Tchaikovsky Society collaborated with Vadim Ivanov since 2003. 
[Here is the list of CDs, recorded by The Boris Tchaikovsky Society with Vadim Ivanov as a sound producer:  CDA67413 (Boris Tchaikovsky: Six Etudes for Strings and Organ),  TROY749 (Boris Tchaikovsky: piano music), 8.557727 (Boris Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto, Clarinet Concerto, The Signs of the Zodiac), TOCC0046 (Boris Tchaikovsky: Song cycles), TOCC0082 (Anatoly Lyadov: piano pieces), TOCC0076 (Herman Galynin: piano pieces), 8.557804 (Sergey Taneyev: Violin Sonata, piano pieces).]


It was a real pleasure to work with Vadim Nikolayevich. The musicians, who started to work with Vadim Ivanov, became his admirers.  He was a person with absolutely positive energy, kind and warm, he always had gave a good impulses for everyone who worked with him or even just contacted with him.


During latest years he taught at Russian Academy of Music, and his pupils are leading sound engineers and producers in new generation. 


I believe the recording made by Vadim Ivanov always will be attractive and will be in demand; his experience will be alive in the hands and ears of his students, and his voice, his image, his kindness, his cordiality will always be alive in the minds and hearts of everyone who knew this outstanding man...


I.P.

October 2011 - Five concerts with major works

In October 2011 five  concerts with the major works by Boris Tchaikovsky will take place:

1 October, Kislovodsk (Russia) - Clarinet Concerto

1 October, Moscow (Russia) - Piano Trio

2 October, Vilnius (Lithuania) - Piano Quintet
23 October, Scottsdale (U.S.A.) - The Wind of Siberia
30 October, St.Petersburg (Russia) - Piano Quintet

More details - on our Web-site.

Boris Tchaikovsky passed away 15 years ago...

On February 7, 1996, the great composer Boris Tchaikovsky passed away.
15 years is almost nothing comparing with the eternity. But it is quite a large time for the human. During such tume quite possible to understand this or that true.
In the past seven years almost all composer's work have been released on the CDs. We can definitely say that music of Boris Tchaikovsky became more and more neccessary for people. We see the great interest to this bright and deep music.
If you look into the list of concerts taken place in 2009-2010 and the schedule of the concert for 2011 - you can notice that the music of Boris Tchaikovsky was performed and will be performed in different parts of the World: in Russia, U.K., U.S.A., Ireland, Germany, Brasil, Lithuania, Italy, Belgium, France, Hong Kong...

We are sure that time of this eternal music came, and Boris Tchaikovsky already took his place in the musical history among his predessesors: Dmitry Shostakovich, Nikolay Miaskovsky, Vissarion Shebalin, Anatoly Lyadov, Sergey Taneyev, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Pyotr Tchaikovsky.

And I completey agree with Mstislav Rostropovich, who wrote about Boris Tchaikovsky: "...I consider him to be a genius, whose contribution to the cello repertoire has yet to be sufficiently appreciated. Boris's modest nature would prevent him from ever showing off or advertising himself, and I do not think that sharing a surname with the illustrious Pyotr has helped him either. Nevertheless, I do think that one day people will come to know that two great Russian composers bore the same name…".

I.P.

New scores published

Two new scores came out from the press:

In the series "Boris Tchaikovsky. Selected Works":
ISMN 979-0-706350-10-3 
Boris Tchaikovsky. Swineherd (1954)  * The Galoshed of Fortune (1958)
Suites for orchestra from music to the fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen (full scores)

In the series "Laureates of the Boris Tchaikovsky Premium":

ISMN 979-0-706350-11-0

Dmitry Koltsov [1984-2010]. Quartet for Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello (full score)

The all list of the published score is here (http://www.boris-tchaikovsky.com/scores_e.htm)

In Memoriam: Rudolf BARSHAI

The great musician Rudolf Barshai has died in Switzerland on November 2nd, at the age of 86.

Rudolf Barshai with Boris Tchaikovsky after the premiere performance of Piano Concerto.

Rudolf Barshai wrote about Boris Tchaikovsky: "... In the Piano Concerto there are some moments where one can see that composer heard the steps of the giants who came before him. Brahms, in using that expression, was thinking of Beethoven. To my mind, Boris Tchaikovsky heard the same steps..." [the article with the full interview please read here.]


Now two giants - composer and conductor - will be on the Heaven...  


Thank you for your art, dear Rudolf Borisovich!..

In Memoriam: Pyotr Kirillovich KONDRASHIN

The mournful news came at the end of of the awful heat of Moscow Summer-2010: the famous sound producer (and engineer, supervisor, editor...)  Pyotr K. Kondrashin suddenly passed away. He was even younger than his father, great conductor Kirill Kondrashin (1914-1981), who also died too early...

Pyotr Kirillovich KONDRASHIN

[24.10.1945 – 01.08.2010]

During many years he was one of the leading Soviet/Russian sound producers, he recorded Svyatoslav Richter, Natalia Gutman, Nikolay Demidenko, Oleg Kagan, Rudolf Kerer, Evgeny Kissin, Vladimir Spivakov; he worked with such composers as Dmitry Shostakovich, Boris Tchaikovsky, Andrey Volkonsky, among many other. Pyotr Kondrashin was a really outstanding person, who made many recording of highest quality (some of them you can see following this link).

He was a very clever and kind person, with an original sense of humor. 

I had a happiness to work with him on several projects for the UK label Toccata Classics, including Grammy-nominated CD "Balakirev and Russian Folksong", Vol.1 of Weinberg's vocal works, the complete piano music of Nikolay Peyko (in two volumes, the releases are expected in 2011); as well as two works by Boris Tchaikovsky (Passacaglia & Fugue) and Spring Song by Andrey Golovin for the CD "Tribute to Boris Tchaikovsky", issued by the label Relief. 

Pyotr Kondrashin made several recordings with Boris Tchaikovsky music in early years, which were issued by Melodiya label on LPs (including Piano Quintet, recently reissued on the CD by Regis/Forum). 

And it was Pyotr Kondrashin, who recorded his father's last concert in USSR. One of Boris Tchaikovsky's recording - Theme & 8 Variations - appeared on the label Globe in 1991, due to the efforts of Pyotr Kondrashin. In that times in Russia it was impossible to find that CD, and one of my foreign friends (in fact, it was Uwe Rueding) found it and send me from Germany. I presented the CD to Boris Tchaikovsky (shortly before his sudden death), and later composer's widow Yanina Iossifovna told me they listened the CD and the composer was happy...

...Thousands listeners over the world (though they often do not notice or even know the names of sound producers) must be grateful to Pyotr Kondrashin for his excellent recordings... Let him be remembered forever!