Peter Tchaikovsky reports rather dryly to his younger brother Modest on 4 May 1893: “In 15 days I have written 18 of them and today I have sent them to Moscow.” This refers to 18 piano pieces, op. 72. In Moscow, his compositions were immediately passed on to the Russian music publisher Pyotr Jurgenson for printing. “Pancakes” is what he called Tchaikovsky’s pieces elsewhere, one of which he baked every day, again downplaying their importance.
Nuron Mukumi, who has chosen to live in Hamburg and has Uzbek roots, recently dealt very successfully with these musical “pancakes”. His complete recording of Tchaikovsky’s Opus 72 shows in an exemplary way that the probably best-known Slavic composer also had something to say in the field of piano music.
