Sapellnikoff (1868-1941): Tchaikovsky - Pf Concerto #1 (1/5)

Vassily Sapellnikoff was taught by Sophie Menter, one of Liszt's older pupils. He was a close friend (possibly a lover) of Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky favoured Sapellnikoff as interpreter of his own works, the famous first piano concerto in particular, and Sapellnikoff promoted the concerto with the composer's blessing. He also made the first recording of that work in 1926 - about as close as we can get to a performance that Tchaikovsky would have approved and expected. Its refusal to resort to pyrotechnics (it pursues a refined and noble course throughout, although that is not to say it is in any way dull) has made it a unique and sometimes contentious recorded document.

This recording of the B flat minor piano concerto op.23 was made in 1926. A pity that the orchestral support is not up to the same standard as the soloist...

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Vassily
• Sapellnikoff
• classical
• piano
• recording
• tchaikovsky
• concerto
• no.1
• Bb
• minor

[byrolinda]

Fascinating. No orchestral vibrato, beautifully controlled, nuanced piano playing (no thunderous thumping here!). How strange that affected emotionalism, and wobbly vibrato is generally considered to be 'Romantic' .. this is so obviously not the case. Thank you so much for posting all these wonderful early recordings .. I have learnt more about romantic performance from these than from any books on the subject. Please keep them coming!

[2ndviolinist]

Just keep listening to old recordings until your ears are screwed on correctly. Try Moiseivitch, Cortot, Pachmann, Rachmaninov, Paderewski, early Hofmann, etc.

[Sinfoniette]

@uhartchristian Well, that gives me a new spectrum of listening to this recording. Thank you. I do think I'll have to understand much more about the piece before making quick judgements.... and to clarify again, I meant "thats a terribly stupid comment" (referring to my own) NOT performance.

[uhartchristian]

@Sinfoniette I think its a very interesting recording but must be seen with the historical context. Yes you are right there should be a bit more fire and the orchestra should be better but how many time did they work together before recording? did you think about that, how much time did he have to practice the days and weeks before, and so on...

what you can hear are a lot of intentions of the composer and a few liberties of the pianist too. we don t expect you to play it the same....

[Sinfoniette]

@Sinfoniette Uh-oh, not performance, but comment. I wanna go hide in a pothole...

[Sinfoniette]

@uhartchristian Sorry, I take that back. Thats a terribly stupid performance. I do like a little more fire on this recording, but on the other way that kind of playing wouldn't exist without recordings like this.

[uhartchristian]

@Sinfoniette you don t like it? so you prefer the inhuman playing of dictatorship surrounded pianists.....

I am a bit un polite I know but it goes to a philosophic question, who is right, the time of Tchaikovsky or the later communist period working class philosophy opposite to salon amusement of the aristocratic society???

you don tlike it, its a question of taste.... you may not like it but Tchaikovsky did like it !!!! and thats important !!!!

[gasparhunt]

what an embarassement those horns are (coming from a 2nd study horn player...)! lol

[AulicExclusiva]

Sapellnikoff knew Tchaikovsky very well, (there may even have been a romantic attachment between the two of them), he played this concerto before the composer. Aside from this historic connection, he plays the piece wonderfully well. This is recording of enormous interest.

[AulicExclusiva]

I think it was made in 1924, though some companies continued making acoustic recordings through 1926.

As Victor and HMV introduced electrical recording with big fanfare in mid 1925, it would seem unlikely that anybody would have set up an expensive recording of a whole concerto, with no commercial future. But anything is possible.

[a1s2d3f4g5q1w2e3]

But the description says this was recorded in 1926?