Alexander Tcherepnin - Piano Concertos 2 & 4; Symphonic Prayer; Magna Mater

Alexander TCHEREPNIN (1899-1977)

Symphonic Prayer, Op.93 (1959)

Piano Concerto No.2, Op.26 (1923)

Magna mater, Op.41 (1926/27)

Piano Concerto No.4 (Fantaisie), Op.78 (1947)

Noriko Ogawa, piano

Singapore Symphony Orchestra, orchestra

Lan Shui

The Symphonic Prayer is a later work of dark mien and unglamorous matter. Its leaping themes and angularity mix with an acid dissonance and in the Antiphon there are salvoes of thunderous drums.

The Second Piano Concerto is in a single movement - like its predecessor. It is dedicated to Jean-Marie Darré whose French Pathé cycle of Saint-Saens piano concertos (now deleted by EMI) is well worth tracking down. Its clean lines are not weighed down with lush treatment. The neo-classical stance accommodates music that is often insistent or even incessant. It ends weakly.

Magna Mater (1923-27) is strangely unemotional. In that sense it is a bit like Markevitch yet neither as supercharged nor as buoyant. A grave theme is centre-stage and the piece ends in a blast of brass and percussion in which the tam-tam is prominent.

The Fourth Piano Concerto Fantaisie (1947) is one of his Chinese-inflected works written shortly before he emigrated to the USA. A sense of fantasy hangs over its pages. The first movement Eastern Chamber Dream is delicately evocative of some sultry Oriental vision. This is disturbed by flurries of polished and glinting notes. The music is very engaging - easy of access and more humane than some of the works featured in this box. The remaining movements are Yan Kuei Fei's Love Sacrifice and typically oriental, innocently optimistic exuberance of Road to Yunnan. Each movement tells a folk tale.