# Tchaikovsky's Piano Music



## Arent (Mar 27, 2017)

Does anyone feel that Tchaikovsky had an odd relationship with the keyboard? It doesn't seem to come naturally to him. His piano concertos are weird at times, starting with the famous "big melody" in the first movement of the first, which is a catchy tune with incredibly un-pianistic piano writing. Then there's the slow movement of the second concerto, in which he seems so uncomfortable with having piano in the piece that he adds concertante solo strings. His piano writing seems to be block chords mixed with artificial bravura and octave sequences. Couldn't he have learned more from his idol Mozart in this regard?

Am I exaggerating to say he verged on downright incompetent in his keyboard writing?


----------



## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

It's true he didn't write much of note for piano, especially solo piano. However I do like some of those works, like _Album for the Young_. Especially the Chopinesque funeral march for...a dead doll. Melancholic fellow. 
The romance from 6 pieces is good. I also like his Nathalie Waltz from the same work, but the original, earlier, less fancy version is better.

It all sounds like typical 19th century salon music. I wouldn't say that it's 'un-pianistic'. Tchaikovsky seems to have been a good pianist.


----------



## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

There are various ways to play it. I can't say anything about the technical/craft dimension of it, but as a layman I've found Ponti's recordings of the complete piano music very worthwile - the music appears fluent and idiomatic, IMO. It is perhaps a more cantabile style than some of the heavier ways of playing it.

Likewise, performances vary a lot as regards the concertos, tempo-wise and regarding the phrasing.

An extreme, merry-go-round, contrastful and very folksy version of the 2nd Concerto is that with Farnadi/Scherchen:


----------



## Arent (Mar 27, 2017)

joen_cph said:


> I can't say anything about the technical/craft dimension of it, but as a layman I've found Ponti's recordings of the complete piano music very worthwile - the music appears fluent and idiomatic, IMO. It is perhaps a more cantabile style than some of the heavier ways of playing it.


Interesting, perhaps Ponti is tackling the issue head-on, but I was trying to say that Tchaikovsky's piano music usually comes across as dry and the opposite of cantabile, and it's quite inexplicable to me in such a composer. His concertos are full of hammered chords and his solo works are almost academic, never really going into melodic or sentimental Chopinesque territory.


----------



## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

As regard the last part of your post, I disagree a lot. _The Seasons_, the _18 Piano Pieces,_ _Album for the Young _etc. are at times almost too sentimental for some people's taste.

Example - June, from The Seasons. 




 (Richter)




 (Ponti)

Two versions with a very different rendering, including the more dramatic series of chords in the centre of the piece; Ponti is generally more classicist I think, but Richter downplays any forte aspects of those chords.


----------



## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

It's true that Tchaikovsky himself was not a particularly accomplished pianist, and his writing suffer in some ways. He was not the magician of the keyboard in the way that Schumann, Rubinstein, Liszt, Gottschalk, or other of his contemporaries were. But there are some really wonderful ideas and fine music. It's completely overshadowed by his great operas, ballets, symphonies, etc. This set has given be great pleasure over the years, is dirt cheap, sounds great, and is much better played than the Michael Ponti recordings for Vox.


----------



## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

I agree that there is more 'Russian-ness' to Postnikova's playing. I personally find her style a bit heavy at times though. Her Janacek, BTW, and some of her Prokofiev, is absolutely stellar.


----------

