Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra in B-flat minor, op. 23 (ČW 53)

Very often, when we are beginning to listen to music, its first notes and phrases remain outside our musical perception. We are about to enter a new world, missing something important. If we know the piece, especially if we know it well enough, we allow ourselves to feel relaxed. But suddenly we hear something unusual, influencing – even if momentarily – the further development of the music, which has already become so close to us. This attracts our attention. This will be the case of your first acquaintance with the first bars, the first phrases of the universally known First Concerto by Pyotr Il’ich Tchaikovsky. And since every note of it is known and dear to all of us who love it, you will grasp some new element. No matter that it lasts not long; it is important as one more word, adding something new to what is perceived by us as established and familiar. This ‘new element’ is the author’s authentic word. We can assert this with confidence, since now we are aware of the fact that the author himself notated and performed his music just this way. A good example is the authentic full score of the famous First Piano Concerto, the most beloved and most famous of all, which has been published now for the first time.

Vladimir Fedoseev

Undine. Opera in three acts (ČW 2). Reconstruction of surviving excerpts

In my opinion, the beginnings of Tchaikovsky as an opera composer are in his Undine composed in the late 1860s. It reveals to us Pyotr Il’ich as a master of drama and offers a wealth of melodies, which, after the destruction of the opera’s score, found a new life in his Second Symphony, the music to A. N. Ostrovsky’s spring tale Sneguročka (The Snow Maiden), and the ballet Swan Lake. In my concerts, I combine the music from the opera with the suite from Swan Lake. The latter work shows, how beneficial was the opera Undine for Tchaikovsky’s creativity: the ‘musical seeds’ planted in it would powerfully germinate in his masterpieces composed later.

Vladimir Fedoseev