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In the Forum: Musical Discussions
In the Thread: A Good Tchaikovsky PC 1?
Post Subject: A Good Tchaikovsky PC 1?Posted by Paul S on: 1/27/2010
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Anyone know of a satisfying recorded version of this concerto?  I offer as one to avoid at all costs Van Cliburn with a "Symphony Orchestra" under the direction of Kiril Kondrashin, RCA LM-2252.  Which "Symphony Orchestra"?  RCA does not care to say, but it is not the 1958 Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, that's for sure. The jacket blurb does, of course, go on and on about how much the sophisticated Ruskies loved Van Cliburn in '58 (of course, they hadn't heard this then...), and on the back of the jacket there is a photo of VC and KK at Carnegie Hall (another place and orchestra that this recording most certainly did not involve...).

Anyway, it is so easy to ruin this piece, right out of the gate.  And here are VC and KK, together again after the their "triumphant" Russian collaboration, stinking up the joint.  P U.

But far be it from me to indict either VC or KK.  They have never-ending obligations, and success like theirs must be quite a burden, after all, with impossible schedules and demands, etc., yadda, yadda.

But one can read the score and "hear" in one's head that it might be a fine concerto.

So who did a fine job of it?

Paul S

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