Peter Maag - Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1; Grieg: Piano Concerto (2021)

Tchaikovsky’s three piano concertos (including the third in Taneyev’s completion) are here collected for release in superbly colourful performances by Peter Jablonski with the Philharmonia. Peter Maag, for some time a conductor much associated with Decca (as witness his marvellous Mozart recordings, now on Decca Eloquence, as well as some glorious Mendelssohn) was meant to conduct all the recordings but his death, shortly after recording the first and the Grieg, meant that task had to be passed on to another Decca stalwart, Charles Dutoit. For all their virtuosic impact, it’s Jablonski’s poetry that is so refreshing and Maag’s direction of the Philharmonia in Tchaikovsky 1 and Grieg are simply sublime – glorious singing tone from the strings and wonderful interplay with the soloist.