Tchaikovsky & Grieg: Piano Concertos

Recording, made with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, conducted by Vassily Sinaisky. Kozhukhin chose two concertos that against all odds, both turned out to become ""virtuoso warhorses"". Grieg is known as a composer with af ocus on the more intimate musical genres. His first attempt to compose in a more extensive musical genre, resulted in a symphony of which Grieg himself said it ""should never be performed..."". His other attempt however, the Piano Concerto in A minor, bought him world-wide success. Until Tchaikovsky started writing his first piano concerto, piano music had only been of secondary interest to him. As he himself put it: ""Basically, I am inflicting violence upon myself by forcing my brain to come up with piano passages"". After seeking professional advice on the composition with his friend and excellent pianist Nikolaj Rubinstein, the latter basically massacred the piece and refused to premiere it. Fortunately Tchaikovsky then decided to dedicate it to German pianist Hans von Bulow, who later on gave it its triumphant premiere. Nowadays these two concertos rank among the most magical in the piano repertoire.