Albany's second volume of the Boris Tchaikovsky Edition features premiere recordings of his small but concentrated body of piano works, perhaps most notable for the Piano Sonata No. 1 (1944) and the Piano Sonata No. 2 (1952), but perhaps most interesting for the other selections. Though surprisingly brief and strongly derived from Shostakovich, his teacher, the two sonatas are Tchaikovsky's most robust, substantially developed solo pieces for the instrument; yet even in their exceptional brevity, they are gargantuan when compared to the positively tiny Sonatina (1946), and the mosaic-like collections of miniatures, the Eight Pieces for Children (1952), Pentatonica (1993), and Natural Modes (1993). Played with vigorous execution and fiery expression by Olga Solovieva, the sonatas communicate the youthful energy and clever invention of a young man who, all the same, has not yet found himself; sad to say, these are not profound statements, but merely competent student works that deserve a passing grade. Tchaikovsky seems, however, to have discovered his true idiom in the simple, aphoristic pieces that fill out the program's second half. Solovieva plays these with clean execution and even tone, and brings across a mood that is almost childlike in its naïveté, yet mysterious in its austerity. Albany's reproduction is fine.
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