Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich
Tchaikovsky Meets Shakespeare
The three symphonic works on this cd are attractive in a way that differs from his piano works. They are full of majesty, passion, sorrow and elegance and, together with other programmatic compositions, they constitute an important part of Tchaikovskys cultural heritage. When interpreting these three works, I felt it was essential that in them Tchaikovsky wears his heart upon his sleeve. As far as I know there is no piano transcription of the incidental music to Hamlet. Hence my transcription is a premiere. There are piano versions of Sleeping Beauty and of Romeo and Juliet, repectively by A. Siloti and by C. Bial. But these are piano reductions meant to make people become acquainted with the music; they are not intended for public performance. There is a piano transcription meant for the stage of Sleeping Beauty, made by Mikhail Pletnev, but with just one exception that transcribes other movements of the ballet, than I do in my transcription of the suite. So I made transcriptions myself. My aim was to retain the essence of the music and yet to make it sufficiently pianistic to let these works be piano works in their own right. Kiyotaka Izumi was born in Tokyo, Japan. In 1995 he graduated from The Music High School attached to the Faculty of Music, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. In 1997 he came to Belgium in order to pursue his studies at the Royal Flemish Conservatory in Music in Antwerp, under the supervision of Levente Kende and Heidi Hendrickx.