Dvorak: Piano Concerto and Piano Quintets

It is fitting that the first repertoire chosen for this recording with Czech Philharmonic is music that has been central to the pianist for most of his life. Antonín Dvorˇák’s Piano Concerto in G minor is the least known of the composer’s three completed concertos. It was written during 1879 and was premiered in Prague in March 1878 by pianist Karel ze Slavkovsky, the orchestra being led by Adolf Cˇech. It has only been revisited infrequently by a handful of pianists since.

In the autumn of 1989, when the communist regime finally gave way to democracy, and playwright Václav Havel became the head of state, Rudolf Firkušný finally agreed to return to Prague. On the 28th May, 1990, he performed the solo part in Bohuslav Martinu’s Piano Concerto no.2 at the Prague Spring festival with the Czech Philharmonic under the direction of Jirˇí Beˇlohlávek. It was an extraordinary confluence of events: pianist Firkušný returning to Prague after 44 years of exile, in order to perform a work he had premiered in Paris in 1935, the writer of which being an eminent Czech composer in the 100th year anniversary of his birth. On this newly compiled 2cd set we can now find Firkusny’s recordings of the Dvorak piano concerto as well as both the Dvorak piano quintets. A unique rerelease of a very important recording.