Sept. 13: Sony Classical Presents Misha Dichter – The Complete RCA Victor Recordings
Sony Classical Presents
Misha Dichter – The Complete RCA Victor Recordings
First re-issue of the complete remastered RCA Victor recordings
Silver Medal winner at the 1966 International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition
Album Release Date: September 13, 2024
Reviewer Rate: $22.51
Misha Dichter was born in 1945 in Shanghai, where his Polish parents had fled, by way of the trans-Siberian railroad, in order to wait out the war. In 1947, the Dichter family moved to Los Angeles where Misha began studying piano. His first significant teacher was Aube Tzerko, who had studied with Artur Schnabel. “He literally started me from scratch,” Dichter recalled. But the hard work finally paid off when he was accepted into Rosina Lhévinne's class at the Juilliard School.
“In the fall of 1965 I saw a poster in the Juilliard coatroom announcing the third annual Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow,” recalls Dichter. “I had just lost a few local competitions in Los Angeles, so I thought, why not just go for the big one?” The young pianist’s Silver Medal victory in 1966 led to a contract with RCA Victor, for whom he made the three acclaimed albums reissued here, and to the international career of this “most polished pianist” (High Fidelity).
It was inevitable, perhaps, that Dichter’s début release for the label would be given over to the Tchaikovsky B-flat minor Concerto, the same work that catapulted the competition’s first winner Van Cliburn to international stardom. Dichter was to perform the Tchaikovsky at Tanglewood, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Erich Leinsdorf, so RCA duly set up recording sessions.
Dichter’s second RCA Victor album juxtaposed selected Brahms piano pieces with Stravinsky’s 3 Movements from Petrushka, and with his third RCA release, the pianist devoted himself to Beethoven and Schubert. Arthur Rubinstein approved of Dichter’s Schubert, to the extent that he famously invited his younger colleague to his Paris home, where a film crew captured Dichter playing Schubert’s B-flat Sonata D 960 in Rubinstein’s presence. Dichter holds an equally special affinity for the A major Sonata D 959 – “it still represents to me what paradise looks and sounds like.” Sony Classical will release the first re-issue of Misha Dichter's complete remastered RCA Victor recordings on September 13, 2024.
SET CONTENTS
DISC 1:
Tchaikovsky: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in B-flat minor op. 23
DISC 2:
Brahms: Intermezzo in A minor op. 118/1
Brahms: Intermezzo in A major op. 118/2
Brahms: Capriccio in C-sharp minor op. 76/5
Brahms: Intermezzo in E major op. 116/4
Brahms: Rhapsody in E-flat major op. 119/4
Stravinsky: 3 Movements from Petrushka
DISC 3:
Beethoven: Andante in F major “Andante favori” WoO 57
Schubert: Piano Sonata in A major D 959