Firma Melodiya presents never-before-released recordings of András Schiff made at the V Tchaikovsky International Competition in 1974.

One of the most prominent pianists of modern times, András Schiff is nevertheless does not belong to the so-called competition format. The musician who earned the pedestal of philosopher pianist, “a representative of intellectual musical tradition in its high apprehension,” has never had virtuosity, sonic lustre and visual artistry in his sphere of interests.

However, the live recordings of the then 21-year-old Hungarian are of unquestionable interest. Soviet music critic Leonid Gakkel described his impressions of Schiff’s performance in the following way: “From his very first note at the competition Schiff struck me with the vigour of his performance, and that was vigour of the highest festivity… What a touch on the piano, what a charge of energy, what burning fingers! Ultimate activity of a creating spirit at each moment of playing…”

At the competition, Schiff played piano works by Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Prokofiev and Shostakovich, variation cycles and concertos by Tchaikovsky and Brahms. In the opinion of Yevgeny Malinin, a competent judge and professor of the Moscow Conservatory, Schiff “read music without a drop of wilfulness: he lived in and with it.” The panel gave him only the fourth prize (“incomplete correspondence” with general virtuosity and competition standards had an impact). However, it wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that it was the Tchaikovsky Competition that brought the first significant success and international repute to the outstanding pianist.