BORIS TCHAIKOVSKY (1925-1996): Violin Concerto.
Catalogue Number: 08J012
Label: Northern Flowers
Reference: NF/PMA 9946
Format: CD
Price: $17.98
Description: An intimate work from 1969 of professed spirituality, with something of an in memoriam subtext, for the composer's father. Throughout the extended single-movement structure the soloist is unquestionably the central figure; narrator and protagonist. Opening with a lengthy and increasingly eloquent soliloquy over hesitant string chords, the work progresses through a series of increasingly impassioned episodes of varying character, always dominated by the violin, accompanied for the first half of the work only by strings, then with the addition of timpani and finally the brass; there are no woodwinds, emphasizing the glacial, monochrome nature of the background, against which the soloist thus stands out in even sharper relief. Not surprisingly there are echoes of Shostakovich, Myaskovsky, and his first teacher, Shebalin, but Tchaikovsky's terse yet personal melodic structures have a distinct individuality, and the work's clearly delineated progression from start to finish makes a powerful cumulative effect.Victor Pikaizen (violin), Odense Symphony Orchestra; Eduard Serov.