Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf

Piano Concerto No. 1

As part of the Young Artists Bayreuth Festival, IMM students produced a CD with the Ukrainian Youth Orchestra under the direction of conductor Oksana Lyniv. Lyniv founded the élite national orchestra in 2016 based on the model of the Federal Youth Orchestra and led it to international renown.

Excerpts from Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” and Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 were produced over three days. Sound engineers were Hari Yim (Scheherazade) and Joan Lennard Schubert (Liszt), who are completing an Artistic Music Production master’s degree program. The sound engineers were Anna Jungfer (an undergraduate majoring in Music and Media) and Lisa Just (an undergraduate in the Sound and Image Bachelor's degree program). The recording was made using the IMM’s own broadcasting van. The supervising professor was Prof. Dagmar Birwe (Artistic Music Production).

Liszt’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 is a virtuoso work posing considerable difficulties for the pianist, which soloist Krystyna Mychailychenko, aged only 14, performed with technical aplomb. The four movements follow each other attacca, demonstrating Liszt's enthusiasm for the tone-poem genre. The piano part is closely intertwined with the orchestra and requires a great deal of sensitive ensemble playing and subtle dynamics. In the third movement, for example, the piano plays delicate unison passages with individual orchestra instruments, or in other movements often has to assert itself alongside powerful passages by the orchestra.

For several years, IMM students have traveled to the Bayreuth Festival and recorded most of the performances.