David Toradze: Piano Concerto Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Alexander Toradze & Gianandrea Noseda

• David Toradze (1922 - 1983): Piano Concerto:
• 1 D. Toradze: Piano Concerto - parte 1 20:21
• 2 D. Toradze: Piano Concerto - parte 2 11:40
• Alexander Toradze (1952 - 2022): Remembers His Father”:
• 3 A. Toradze: Remembers His Father” 07:34
• on Interpreting Prokofiev’s Seventh Piano Sonata”:
• 4 A. Toradze: on Interpreting Prokofiev’s Seventh Piano Sonata” 07:39
• on Interpreting the Piano Sonata op. 109 by L. van Beethoven”
• 5 A. Toradze: on Interpreting the Piano Sonata op. 109 by L. van Beethoven” 05:56
• Total Runtime 53:10

Info for David Toradze: Piano Concerto

A memory from Gianandrea Noseda: Alexander “Lexo” Toradze and I shared the stage many times. It was one of the great artistic partnerships for me and included multiple Prokofiev’s piano concerti cycles, both Shostakovich’s Piano concerti, Stravinsky, Ravel G-major, Rachmaninoff nr. 3, and Tchaikovsky nr. 1. But what makes me proudest is that we were able to perform his father David Toradze’s Piano concerto in Turin in January 2005. I knew the piece because I prepared the work for Valery Gergiev a few years earlier in St. Petersburg. The performance in Turin was incredibly touching because I had the impression that Lexo was finally able to reconcile with his father who had passed away a few weeks after he defected from the Soviet Union in 1983. Lexo’s relationship with the memory of his father was difficult and he seemed to be carrying the moral responsibility for his death. Lexo and I had also planned to present the Georgian premiere of David Toradze’s Piano concerto in summer 2020 as part of the Tsinandali Festival but the pandemic forced the cancellation of the festival. This recording represents therefore Lexo’s spiritual heritage. It is not only a tribute to his intimately tormented relationship with his father, but also to the entire Toradze’s family, his mother Liana and his sister Nino. I am honoured to have been a part of it, and it is a memory of my friendship with this incredible artist.

Alexander Toradze, piano
Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI
Gianandrea Noseda, conductor

Alexander Toradze
is universally recognized as a masterful virtuoso in the grand Romantic tradition. He has enriched the Great Russian pianistic heritage with his own unorthodox interpretative conceptions, deeply poetic lyricism, and intensely emotional excitement.

Mr. Toradze’s recording of all five Prokofiev concertos with Valery Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra for the Philips label, is acclaimed by critics as definitive. His recording of Prokofiev’s Piano Concert No. 3 was named by International Piano Quarterly as «historically the best on record» (from among over seventy recordings). Other highly successful recordings have included Scriabin’s Prometheus: The Poem of Fire, with the Kirov Orchestra, Valery Gergiev conducting as well as recital albums of the works of Mussorgsky, Stravinsky, Ravel and Prokofiev for the Angel/EMI label.

Mr. Toradze regularly appears with the world’s leading orchestras. Among his best friends, some of the leading conductors of today such as Valery Gergiev, Esa Pekka Salonen, Yukka Pekka Saraste, Mikko Frank, Paavo and Kristian Järvi, Vladimir Jurowski and Gianandrea Noseda. Additionally, Mr. Toradze regularly takes part in many summer music festivals including those of Salzburg, the White Nights in St. Petersburg, London’s BBC Proms concerts, Edinburgh, Rotterdam, Mikkeli (Finland), the Hollywood Bowl, Saratoga, and Ravinia.

Recent engagements include the BBC Philharmonic and Swedish Radio Orchestras under Gianandrea Noseda, the London Symphony and the Mariinsky Orchestras under Valery Gergiev, the Cincinnati Symphony under Paavo Järvi, the London Philharmonic under the Music Director Vladimir Jurowski and Jukka Pekka Saraste in addition to concerts with the Orchestre National de France, the Gulbenkian Orchestra, the Czech and the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestras. In March 2010 he took part to a US tour with the London Philharmonic under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski, including a concert at the Avery Fisher Hall in New York.

Among recent projects were the opening concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Stresa Festival under the baton of Gianandrea Noseda, the recording of both Shostakovich Pianoconcerti with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Järvi.

Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, Alexander Toradze graduated from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow and soon became a professor there. In 1983, he moved permanently to the United States and in 1991 he was appointed as the Martin endowed Professor of Piano at the Indiana University South Bend, where he has created a teaching environment that is unparalleled in its unique concept. The members of the multi- national Toradze Piano Studio have developed into a worldwide touring ensemble that has performed projects detailing the piano and chamber works of Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Dvorak, Stravinsky and Shostakovich in Europe (UK, Italy, Germany, Portugal, France) and in the United States.

Booklet for David Toradze: Piano Concerto