It is rare for a musician to return a work written for him to the composer on the basis that he finds it banal and unplayable in places. This is exactly what happened to Tchaikovsky’s justifiably popular, catchy and romantic Piano Concerto in B-flat minor. The insulted composer struck through the name of Nikolai Rubinstein on the work’s dedication, replacing it with that of Hans von Bülow, who described the work as “very difficult, but worth the effort”. Bülow performed the genuinely difficult piece with great success, as a result of which Rubinstein revised his earlier opinion and added it to his repertoire, and the public acclaimed him as soloist at the concerto’s Paris première.
At almost the same time as Tchaikovsky wrote his piano concerto, the Austrian Anton Bruckner composed perhaps his most popular orchestral work, his Symphony No. 4. Bruckner was an enthusiastic admirer of Wagner, and traces of this enthusiasm can be detected in his music. At the same time, his music also reflects the influences of Austrian folk music, Beethoven and Schubert. Bruckner’s symphonies remain unmistakably his, however, his distinctive voice strikingly conspicuous throughout all his works.

Presented by: Zugló Philharmónia