RUSSIAN PIANO MINIATURES FOR CHILDREN: Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovitch [CD de audio] Rimma Bobritskaïa (piano) and Tchaik

It was Robert Schumanns Kinderszenen and Album fur die Jugend that inspired Tchaikovsky to start composition on his Childrens Album in 1878. He dedicated the set to his nephew Vladimir Davidoff (Bobik) who was 7 years old.For a long time I have been saying to myself that it would be a good thing to contribute, within the limits of my powers, to the enrichment of the piano literature for children, which is rather poor. I would like to compose a series of very easy little pieces with attractive titles like Schumann did he wrote to his patron Mme von Meck. In less than a week of writing these words he had completed the 24 pieces of his Childrens Album. Like Schumanns works, there is nothing childlike about the music, rather it displays an adult mind totally understanding of a childs view of the world, together with a tender nostalgia. Tchaikovskys Op.39 proved so popular that later Russian composers also composed works for children. In the Soviet period Prokofiev composed his Music for Ch