Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.2 (original version)

[redieze]

Did you knew that secret jewel: Tchaikovski 2nd piano concerto...?recently discovered on radio (without composer's name aired before listening)but except for complete sets of his piano/orch.works, when have we chance to listen to it ?

[CelesteCadenza]

There are actually several recordings of this concerto:
Fedoseyev/Philharmonia/Pletnev,
Ormandy/Philadelphia/Graffman
Rozhdestvensky/USSR/Zhukov
Vänskä/Minnesota/Hough [+ alternate 2nd Mvmnts /part of The Romantic Piano Concerto, Vol. 50]
Weller/BBC Wales/Lill
There may certainly be more, but these are those in my collection (in addition to a few live broadcast performances). No matter, it deserves to be heard more often.

[redieze]

for those interested (completist,me?) in PIT whole concertante works with piano:Oleg Marshev on Danacord (DACOCD586/587) added the andante & finale op.79,Concert Fantasia op.56 and Allegro in c minor (1863/64)with a danish provincial orchestra....

[MartinH]

I've loved this "unknown" Tchaikovsky concerto ever since the Graffman/Ormandy recording came out. Back then it really was obscure, and little did I know that they used the Siloti edition. I remember the first concert that I heard it played live at. The concert commentator gave a talk before the concert and when it got to the concerto said, and I can still quote it these 50 years later, "it's horrible. I'm sure glad I didn't write it!" That commentator was a composer/teacher who had only one of his many works ever recorded - and it's never been on CD. None of his music is played anywhere, not even at the institution he taught at. I bet he was insanely jealous that such a horrible concerto would be performed and recorded many times while his works lie dormant and probably always will.

[TerraEpon]

It would never occur to me that Tchaik's 2nd PC was 'unsung'. Not hugely popular like his first one, sure, but compared to something like The Snow Maiden, or Hamlet (incidental music)....how how about 'Serenade for N. G. Rubinstein's Name-Day'? Jurisprudence March? To just name the tip of the iceburg with him. Hell those piece I listed don't even compare to the even more obscure...

[Alan Howe]

It's not usung, in my view. ArkvMusic lists 33 (!) recordings of this glorious piece:
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=11958&name_role1=1&genre=154&bcorder=19&comp_id=3208

It's just that PC1 is so ubiquitous, that PC2 suffers by comparison. More somewhat unfamiliar than unsung, I'd say...

[CelesteCadenza]

It's not usung, in my view. ArkvMusic lists 33 (!) recordings of this glorious piece:

I had not realized that  there are quite so many! Though, if one is deducting reissues, the number of individual recorded performances is somewhat lower; the Biret/Tabakov/Bilkent recording alone accounts for 3 of the 33.

[Alan Howe]

Well, PC2's still not an unsung piece - it's just overshadowed by PC1 (sigh!) It's hardly a secret either...

[eschiss1]

I would have put the concert fantasy in the somewhat less sung category, or the Andante and Finale edited by Taneyev.

[Alan Howe]

Agreed, Eric.

[Alan Howe]

Yes, I know: this is Tchaikovsky; but how well-known (and appreciated) is his PC2 in its original, full version - i.e. all 42-43 minutes of it? It's a bit like the situation with Bruch: turn on the radio and the presenter will announce with a flourish 'Bruch's Violin Concerto', meaning No.1, of course. And it's the same with Tchaikovsky: is there life beyond his PC1? And the answer is 'of course' - there's PC2, which is a magnificent creation on an even more ambitious scale featuring a virtual triple concerto movement as its centrepiece. It's as moving and exciting as any PC I know.

[Alan Howe]

Just wondering: how many recordings of PC2 are of the original, non-Siloti version?

[TerraEpon]

Just wondering: how many recordings of PC2 are of the original, non-Siloti version?

About 50 according to the discography from Tchaikovsky-Research, though this includes some with small cuts and a couple with the second movement being Siloti's, but there's a separate section for Siloti's version.

[eschiss1]

Even if they only use his version in the slow movement, that's a lovely quasi-triple-concerto being gotten rid of.

[John Boyer]

I still recall my surprise when I finally heard the original and realized how much damage Siloti had done.  Was it Ponti who first recorded the original?  Back then it was always -- on the rare occasions it was played or recorded -- Siloti.

It seems to me most recordings these days have dispensed with the Siloti version.