WPR Music new album of the week: Pianist Daniil Trifonov plays Tchaikovsky

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky isn’t known for his solo piano music, but this new disc from Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov is seeking to change that impression.

Trifonov’s career has been on a meteoric rise since winning the grand prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2011. Over the last decade, he’s released stunning albums of the music of Chopin, Liszt and Rachmaninoff, plus a compelling disc of American piano concertos.

But this is the first time he’s turned his full attention to Tchaikovsky, and it was worth the wait. 

As the cover captures, the works on this new two-disc album are unusually playful for Tchaikovsky. The centerpiece is the “Children’s Album,” sometimes called his “Album for the Young,” a collection of 24 very short pieces Tchaikovsky dedicated to his young nephew. These follow in the tradition of Robert Schumann’s “Scenes from Childhood” as simple pieces inspired by typical childhood experiences, like playing with dolls and hobbyhorses, singing songs and attending church. Trifonov takes the work seriously but keeps the tone light, resulting in a perfectly balanced performance throughout.

The other major work on the album is a set of highlights from Tchaikovsky’s ballet “Sleeping Beauty,” as arranged for solo piano back in the 1980s by Mikhail Pletnev. Here, too, Trifonov brings out the playfulness in selections inspired by Puss-in-Boots and the Silver Fairy, but also the drama of what Tchaikovsky considered one of his most serious works.

Rounding out the album are a couple of rarely-heard early works: the “Theme and Variations” from the “Six Pieces,” Op. 19, and Tchaikovsky’s first attempt at a “Piano Sonata.” Written while he was still a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, the C-major “Piano Sonata” was never published during Tchaikovsky’s lifetime. The critical consensus is that it shows a composer still trying to find himself, musically, but Trifonov’s performance makes an impassioned case for the work.

It’s a generously packed album, full of simple pleasures and new discoveries. Daniil Trifonov’s “Tchaikovsky” is out now on the Deutsche Grammophon label.