Tchaikovsky Grand Sonata & The Seasons Nikolai Lugansky

• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893): Grand Sonata in G Major, Op. 37, TH 139:
• 1 I. Moderato e risoluto 14:55
• 2 II. Andante non troppo quasi moderato 10:14
• 3 III. Scherzo. Allegro giocoso 03:02
• 4 IV. Finale. Allegro vivace 06:59
• The Seasons, Op. 37a, TH 135:
• 5 No. 1 in A Major, January. By the Hearth 05:53
• 6 No. 2 in D Major, February. The Carnival 02:56
• 7 No. 3 in G Minor, March. Song of the Lark 02:36
• 8 No. 4 in B-Flat Major, April. Snowdrop 02:52
• 9 No. 5 in G Major, May. White Nights 04:56
• 10 No. 6 in G Minor, June. Barcarolle 04:59
• 11 No. 7 in E-Flat Major, July. Reaper's Song 01:51
• 12 No. 8 in B Minor, August. The Harvest 03:39
• 13 No. 9 in G Major, September. The Hunt 02:52
• 14 No. 10 in D Minor, October. Autumn Song 05:36
• 15 No. 11 in E Major, November. On the Troika 03:19
• 16 No. 12 in A-Flat Major, December. Christmas 04:47
• Total Runtime 01:21:26

Info for Tchaikovsky Grand Sonata & The Seasons

Incredibly, despite several solo recordings dedicated to Russian composers, this new recording is award-winning artist Nikolai Lugansky’s first Tchaikovsky recital on record. Though less well-known than his operas or his orchestral compositions, Tchaikovsky’s piano music nonetheless contains essential works, such as the 'The Seasons' cycle and the 'Grand Sonata', featured here. Composed at a period of crisis in the composer‘s personal life, they illustrate two quite different aspects of his style: on the one hand we have the fashionable worldliness of 'The Seasons', pieces that almost belong to the genre of salon music; on the other, we see him ambitiously grappling with the classical sonata, in the tradition of his illustrious predecessors, Liszt, Schumann, Chopin.

For Nikolai Lugansky, whom Gramophone has called “‘the most trailblazing and meteoric performer of all”, this recording is like “having a new encounter with Tchaikovsky, almost like falling in love with someone new…ever since the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1994 I haven’t played any of the pieces that I performed back then – apart from the Concertos. Nearly all the solo works I played in the Competition, including the Grand Sonata, had dropped out of my repertoire – I don’t know why. With The Seasons, it’s the same thing: I’d studied four of the twelve Seasons – it’s very rewarding music to play. And what’s surprising is that these two works are both from his Opus 37; they were composed during the same period.”

Nicolai Lugansky, piano

Nikolai Lugansky
Concerto highlights in Nikolai Lugansky’s 2013/14 season include his debut with the London Symphony Orchestra (Gianandrea Noseda), and returns to the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (Jiří Bělohlávek), the Philharmonia Orchestra (Pablo Heras-Casado), St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra (Yuri Temirkanov) and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.

In recital and chamber performances, Lugansky makes his debut at the Berlin Konzerthaus, and performs at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire and the Great Hall of the St Petersburg Philharmonia, Chicago’s Symphony Center, Paris’ Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and in the International Piano Series at the Queen Elizabeth Hall; his chamber music collaborations include performances with Vadim Repin, Mischa Maisky and Alexander Kniazev.

An acclaimed recording artist, Nikolai Lugansky records exclusively for the Naïve-Ambroisie label. His recording of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No.3 and Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Deutsches-Symphonie Orchester Berlin and Kent Nagano is released in autumn 2013. This release follows on from his first two acclaimed solo recordings - of Liszt and Rachmaninov - for the label; the latter being awarded the “Solo Recording of the Year (20th/21st Century Music)” plaudit at the 2013 Echo Klassik Awards.

Booklet for Tchaikovsky Grand Sonata & The Seasons