Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor, Italian Capriccio & Flower Waltz Filippo Faes, Cologne New Philharmonic Orchestra & Volker Hartung

• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893): Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 23, TH 55:
• 1 Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 23, TH 55: I. Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso - Allegro con spirito 20:01
• 2 Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 23, TH 55: II. Andantino semplice - Allegro vivace assai 07:47
• 3 Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 23, TH 55: III. Allegro con fuoco 07:02
• The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a, TH 35:
• 4 The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a, TH 35: III. Waltz of the Flowers 06:22
• Italian Capriccio, Op. 45, TH 47:
• 5 Italian Capriccio, Op. 45, TH 47 14:36
• Total Runtime 55:48

Info for Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor, Italian Capriccio & Flower Waltz

Italian pianist Filippo Faes gives a lyrical interpretation to Tchaikovsky’s piano concert. Instead of the usual bravura interpretation of the First Concerto the soloist and Volker Hartung honour Tchaikovsky as lyricist and perform this work based on the way this masterpiece was apparently performed in his lifetime. Together they favour a sweetly lyrical approach, more leisurely tempos, in elegant, yet brilliant manner. Recorded in the lush acoustics of Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, they strive to maintain long phrasings at all costs, thereby bringing out the vocal and operatic qualities in Tchaikovsky’s music.

Filippo Faes, piano
Cologne New Philharmonic Orchestra
Volker Hartung, conductor

Digitally remastered

Filippo Faes
After his victory at the International Schubert Competition in Dortmund in 1989, Filippo Faeswas celebrated by the press as one of the most profound and creative performers of his generation(“he played the Sonata in C minor and Schubert came breathtakingly close to us“ – Westfälische Rundschau, and “probably, since the days of Schnabel or Erdmann we have not heard the Schubert Sonatasbeing performed in such an intense, musical way“). For seven years in a row he was invited as a soloist with orchestra in great concert halls like Kölner Philharmonie and Musikhalle Hamburg, both sold out time after time. His debuts at Berlin Philharmonic, Gasteig Munich, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, BBC International Recitals London, Mishkenot CenterJerusalem, Stravinsky Hall in Montreux, Palais des Beaux Artes in Bruxelles, Palais de la Musique in Strasbourg and performances with conductors like Piero Bellugi, Alun Francis, Volker Hartung, Peter Maag, Carl Melles, José Serebrier, Leon Spierer were just as successful.

Especially acclaimed as a supreme and original interpreter of Schubert, Filippo Faes performed the complete series of his piano sonatas repeatedly, he participated in several Schubertiade concerts (such as his participation at Schwetzinger Festspiele 1997 – together with Lisa Leonskaja, the Prazak Quartet and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau). He has conducted most of Schubert’s symphonies. His programs on Schubert and his music have been broadcasted by Italian radio and television. In Italy Filippo Faes is a regular guest of the most important institutions and orchestras. Titles of his reviews include: “musician from another epoch turned into a poetby Schubert“(Il Giornale nuovo, Genoa) or “an immersion into Beethoven‘s depths that makes us holdour breath“(Corriere della sera, Milan).

A passionate chamber musician amongst his partners have been Ulf Rodenhäuser, Babette Dorn, Alexander Hülshoff, Christoph Henkel, Anna Serova, Eszter Haffner, Bruno Giuranna, Salvatore Accardo, Toby Hoffmann and many others. As a conductor he is often engaged in the performance and diffusion of contemporary music: in June 2009 he conducted the world première of the opera Giocastaby Azio Corghi at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza (with the Swingle Singers and the narrating voice of Chiara Muti).

He also directed various original projects (like the remake of Ingmar Bergman‘s version of PeerGynt and the Schönberg/Riehn version of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde) with some of the leading Italian chamber orchestras. In July 2009 he was artistic director and conductor of the multimedia-futuristic opera L’Incendiario elettrico, created and performed by students and faculties of seven European universities and conservatoires, under the supervision of the Conservatoire of Castelfranco Veneto. The Opera was performed and recorded at the Teatro Accademico, a DVD has been published for the label Al Gran Sole.

Filippo Faes is the author of many television programs on music (like 10 Conversations at the Piano produced by RAI SAT in 1999). He has directed projects like Che Musica parli? (Can Music talk?) in Montebelluna 2006, E se chiedessimo a Beethoven? (Suppose we asked Beethoven?), in the historical Palazzo Leoni Montanariin Vicenza (since 2006) and Scintille (Sparkles) in Treviso (2013), series of lecture concerts in order to discover, together with groups of university and high school students, the formidable power of communication Music can possess and to discuss how it can transform our world.

Filippo Faes is Professor of Chamber Music, Piano and Lied Interpretation at the Conservatoire of Castelfranco Veneto and gives masterclasses in Europe, the USA, South America, New Zealand and Singapore.

Booklet for Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor, Italian Capriccio & Flower Waltz