Leslie Howard - Tchaikovsky: Piano Sonatas

Although only one, the last to be written, of Tchaikovsky's piano sonatas was published during his lifetime, there are, strictly speaking, three such works.The single-movement F minor work of 1863/4 was abandoned incomplete and untitled, though the composer was later to reuse some of the material; it here receives a rare performance�and its first recording�in a version completed by Leslie Howard.The second sonata to be composed (it was published posthumously, accounting for the apparently late Opus number) adopts the more typical four-movement structure, and while it would not do to make exaggerated claims for the work, it is a good deal better than its critics frequently allow.The third sonata, the only one to have remained firmly in the repertoire, is a major work whose felicities are numerous and memorable, offering the pianist an opportunity to revel in Tchaikovsky's broad palette of sound.