Cover Art - Columbia


Cover Art - Toshiba


Cover Art - Danté Reissue


Harmonie Magazine Review
August-September 1967
Click Here - in French
Click Here - in English


Click Here - BnF Reference


Columbia Records (EMI Pathé Marconi) CCA-1106 (Stereo)
Japanese Version
Toshiba/EMI AA-8229 (Stereo)
Reissue - Danté Records, HPC035 - Volume 3
Mozart - Prélude au XIXème siècle

Music/MP3:
Mozart Recital

1. Sonata K533 - Allegro / 01_mozart_sonata_k533_allegro.mp3
2. Sonata K533 - Andante / 02_mozart_sonata_k533_andante.mp3
3. Sonata K494 - Rondo, Andante / 03_mozart_sonata_k494_rondo.mp3
4. Sonata K312 - Allegro / 04_mozart_sonata_k312_allegro.mp3
5. Rondo K511 - Andante / 05_mozart_rondo_k511.mp3
6. Marche K408 / 06_mozart_marche_k408.mp3
7. Menuet K355 / 07_mozart_menuet_k355.mp3
8. Gigue K574 - Allegro / 08_mozart_gigue_k574.mp3
9. Adagio K540 / 09_mozart_adagio_k540.mp3

Click Here for some portions on YouTube

Recording Date(s):
September 6 to 8, 1966, and January 17, 1967

Recording Location:
Salle Wagram, Paris, France

Release Date:
1967

Harmonie Magazine Review (August-September 1967):
With one or two exceptions, the best of Mozart's output for solo piano is not to be found in the Sonatas, and even less in the Variations, but indeed in those small, isolated pieces, classified under the heading "miscellaneous" and, for that reason, neglected on records and in the concert hall. Of the gems chosen by André Tchaikowsky, most other versions can be found only in the complete recordings of Gieseking or Balsam. Only the elegiac Rondo in A minor has the favor of pianists, maybe because of its pre-Chopin accents. It is the tremendous expressive weight of those pages that gives them their value. Here, the expression is so inherent to the music itself that one just needs to let it speak, without trying to "milk it."

André Tchaikowsky doesn't always escape that temptation: there are a number of excessive accents, rubati, inappropriate sforzandi that break the shape and the balance of the musical phrase. Those attempts betray an unquestionable good-will, and even a true understanding of the revolutionary message contained in these pages. But why, as Stravinsky said, why try to "sugar the sugar"? At least, one cannot fault André Tchaikowsky for being indifferent or superficially pretty. His interpretations, served by an admirable technique and by distinguished qualities of touch and tonal production, are generous and involved. The big Sonata in F, the enigmatic and sparse Allegro in G minor are not concerned by the previous criticism and benefit from lively and warm interpretations. With its unusual program, returning many marvels to our catalog, this LP is one of the most exciting that can be found these days in the field of Mozart's music for solo piano.

Harry Halbreich (Trans. Edouard Reichenbach)

Known Details
The following is from the book, The Other Tchaikowsky:

Recordings for EMI Pathé/Columbia Records

There are no documents showing when André starting recording again, but for EMI Pathé/Columbia Records, André made four recordings that were released in France between 1965 and 1967, and one recording that was never released. These were:

1. Goldberg Variations - Bach [1965]
2. Valses Nobles, Valses 5entimentales, Ländler - Schubert [1966]
3. Sonatas No. 23/No. 49, Andante and Variations - Haydn [1967]
4. Sonata in F Major K,533/474, Miniatures - Mozart [1967]
5. Mazurkas No. 30 to 51 - Chopin [not released]

Columbia Records asked André to describe himself for the record covers. André wrote back:

Where to begin? Of the "four temperaments" only the phlegmatic is missing. I have all the qualities of my failings. I am egocentric, impulsive, garrulous, capricious, untidy, lazy, depressive, but also honest, spontaneous, enthusiastic, unselfish, and affectionate. It is obvious that I have too much imagination and my sense of reality has degenerated little by little due to its lack of exercise. I tell lies as easily as I breathe (did I say that I was honest?) but only when this is of no use to me.

Apart from my music I am especially interested in literature. Since my first stay in France, I have spent a lot of time studying the French classics of the 17th Century and, back in Poland, French novels and the great Russian classics. Now that I live in England, I have discovered a real passion for Shakespeare. My dream would be one day to direct "Anthony and Cleopatra" but who in the world would let me? Apart from Shakespeare, my preferences are for Racine, Dostoyevsky, and Proust.

What I love most of all is people. And if I am sometimes taken for a misanthrope, that is because I have a horror of receptions, snobs, and society gossip. These festivals of boredom are sometimes compulsory and I have only made friends by saying what I think of them! Everything which hinders the unpredictable, adventure, and discovery repels me. When on tour what I love is to arrive in a town, leave my suitcases, and go out for a long walk without knowing where it will take me.

Sometimes I play bridge, where my tendency to exaggerate causes me to make bids which are completely mad, and chess, where my lack of organization becomes immediate and painfully obvious. I practice only one sport, swimming. I can also get by in cooking.

André's biographical description of himself was not quite what Columbia Records had in mind. They had to add the customary biographical materials after André's description the best they could. By 1971, apparently due to lack of demand, all four recordings had been erased from the Columbia Records catalog.