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01-27-2010

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Paul S
San Diego, California, USA
Posts 2,672
Joined on 10-12-2006

Post #:	1
Post ID:	12781
Reply to:	12781

A Good Tchaikovsky PC 1?

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

01-27-2010

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Romy the Cat

Boston, MA
Posts 10,184
Joined on 05-28-2004

Post #:	2
Post ID:	12787
Reply to:	12781

Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto

Well, the Tchaikovsky PC1 is well played, anyone plays it. After listening it for years and having does and dose versions I would say that there is the only one definitive interpolation for me: Martha Argerich with Claudio Abbado and Berlin Philharmonic. Martha recorded it many times but no one of her recording of this work as good as with Abbado. In fact the Abbado’s orchestra does some extraordinary things in there. Look at the YouTube some clips where Argerich play the work at different times but none of them are good, including the lone where she plays with her husband Charles Dutoit. Her play with Abbado is it. In my view there is nothing that can be said mode in this concerto then what Argerich did with Abbado. Mind you that I am not a big fun of her Chopin’s or Rachmaninoff’s concertos…

The Cat

"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche

01-28-2010

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Axel
South Africa
Posts 80
Joined on 07-18-2009

Post #:	3
Post ID:	12790
Reply to:	12787

Richter, Karajan and Berliner... DG 138 822 from 1962

I would like your opinion if you are familiar with this PC1 and may learn something by what you would have to say.

As far as Algerich and Chopin are concerned, I can not get into her International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition: 1st prize (1965)price winning renditions. I recall finding it rather boring, but then I'm not a technician, pianist, or judge, just a simple listener...
Greetings,
Axel
PS: MOST women on piano have their "style" which lacks some ~guts~ or attitude for my appreciation, and most notable when playing Beethoven, and the like of mid to late Classic periode composers.

01-28-2010

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Romy the Cat

Boston, MA
Posts 10,184
Joined on 05-28-2004

Post #:	4
Post ID:	12791
Reply to:	12790

Richter and Karajan

Richter and Karajan playing the Tchaikovsky PC1 are well celebrated performance. Some years back I had a fool fixation to get one moment from that play to sound in a certain way – I have perhaps 15 different pressings of the thing. Unfortunately I am not a big fan of the Richter interpretation of THIS work and what it was not the best collaboration with orchestra. Argerich is WAY more interesting with Tchaikovsky PC1. If you like Richter and Karajan then got for Rachmaninoff Second concertos – there is everything is very nice.

THe Cat

"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche

03-28-2010

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Paul S
San Diego, California, USA
Posts 2,672
Joined on 10-12-2006

Post #:	5
Post ID:	13231
Reply to:	12791

Argerich/BPO/Abbado, 1994

DGG CD, 449 816-2

Argerich, Abbado and the BPO waste no time in "putting it out there" for the wonderful, live audience, but it does take a little while for the audience and all the performers to totally connect. Once they are hooked up, the space simply electricifies in one of those all-too-seldom, world class performaces of a great work.

At one point, as Argerich begins to really linger over some notes and phrases, you can hear and feel her anticipating the audience, which defferentially (and oh-so-wisely), silently gives her leave to do as likes. And what she likes is to make love to and from this remarkable piece.

Hard to believe the incredible level of interplay and all that went into this performance in terms of pure, artistic effort. I wonder if after the performance everyone floated around for days, or if they were totally spent and laid out flat for a week.

It does sound as if the interpretation here is simply "different'; but it is also "better" for it.

Freaking, Bravo!

Paul S

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