Misha Dichter - The Complete RCA Victor Recordings

Misha Dichter - The Complete RCA Victor Recordings cover $40.00 Low Stock add to cart

BRAHMS / SCHUBERT / BEETHOVEN / STRAVINSKY / TCHAIKOVSKY
Misha Dichter - The Complete RCA Victor Recordings
Misha Dichter (piano) / Boston Symphony Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf

[ Sony Classical / 3 CD Box Set ]

Release Date: Friday 6 September 2024

Should this item be out of stock at the time of your order, we would expect to be able to supply it to you within 2 - 4 weeks.

Misha Dichter was born in 1945 in Shanghai, where his Polish parents had fled to by way of the trans-Siberian railroad in order to wait out the war. In 1947 the Dichter family moved to Los Angeles where Misha began studying piano. His first significant teacher was Aube Tzerko, who had studied with Artur Schnabel. "He literally started me from scratch," Dichter recalled. But the hard work finally paid off when he was accepted into Rosina Lhévinne's class at the Juilliard School.

"In the fall of 1965 I saw a poster in the Juilliard coatroom announcing the third annual Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow," recalls Dichter. "I had just lost a few local competitions in Los Angeles, so I thought, why not just go for the big one?" The young pianist's Silver Medal victory in 1966 led to a contract with RCA Victor, for whom he made the three acclaimed albums reissued here, and to the international career of this "most polished pianist" (High Fidelity).

It was inevitable, perhaps, that Dichter's début release for the label would be given over to the Tchaikovsky B-flat minor Concerto, the same work that catapulted the competition's first winner Van Cliburn to international stardom. Dichter was to perform the Tchaikovsky at Tanglewood, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Erich Leinsdorf, so RCA duly set up recording sessions.

Dichter's second RCA Victor album juxtaposed selected Brahms piano pieces with Stravinsky's 3 Movements from Petrushka, and with his third RCA release, the pianist devoted himself to Beethoven and Schubert. Arthur Rubinstein approved of Dichter's Schubert, to the extent that he famously invited his younger colleague to his Paris home, where a film crew captured Dichter playing Schubert's B-flat Sonata D 960 in Rubinstein's presence. Dichter holds an equally special affinity for the A major Sonata D 959 - "it still represents to me what paradise looks and sounds like."

Tracks:

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23

Brahms: Intermezzo in A minor, Op. 118 No. 1

Brahms: Intermezzo in A major, Op. 118 No. 2

Brahms: Capriccio in C sharp minor, Op. 76 No. 5

Brahms: Intermezzo in E major, Op. 116 No. 4

Brahms: Rhapsody in E flat major, Op. 119 No. 4

Stravinsky: Three Movements from Petrushka

Beethoven: Andante Favori in F, WoO 57

Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 20 in A major, D959