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DiscountDelight - Tchaikovsky: Concerto No. 1/Rachmaninoff: Concerto No. 2
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List Price: $17.98
Our Price: $10.99
Your Save: $ 6.99 ( 39% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: RCA
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0078635591224
Label: RCA
Manufacturer: RCA
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: RCA
Release Date: 1993-01-12
Studio: RCA
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: One of classical music's best back in SACD
Comment: Van Cliburn's famous rendering of the Tchaikovsky concerto, recorded just days after the tall Texan won Moscow's Tchaikovsky competition in 1958, has been one of classical music's most famous and endearing recordings since the day it first appeared on vinyl.
Not only is the performance in the vein of 20th century masters like Joseph Hoffman, it did much during a tense time in US-Soviet relations to relax tensions caused by the space race and arms race. The duo of Cliburn and Kiril Kondrashin showed the two superpowers could work together at one thing, at least.
The mixture of virtuosity and poetry is what sets this recording apart from anything that's been recorded since 1958. Pianists simply don't play like this any longer, especially virtuosos recording in the digital era. This recording has to be heard to understand the difference between the grand style of the 19th and 20th centuries and the keyboard style performed today.
I was a bit disappointed when I played this on my 5.1 system and it only played in stereo, especially since the booklet indicates it is a three channel recording. These are the inconsistencies of the early period of multichannel recordings, I've learned. One takes a chance every time one buys an SACD recording that it will merely be stereo.
Still, the sound is a magnificent upgrade from the original stereo, with much greater presence and definition in the sound field. Linked together with the magnificent artistry of the soloist and his accompanists, this remains among the the most treasurable piano recordings of the 20th century and probably is still the best recording available -- and now one of the best sounding recordings available -- of the Tchaikovsky.
For aboput $10 most places, this is a remarkable value that cannot be topped.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff Concertos
Comment: These are two of the most popular piano concertos around, played
by one of the "giants" of the piano. This album is probably the
best-selling classical album of all time. It won't disappoint.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Tchaikovsy good. Rach nothing special.
Comment: The Tchaikosvky is definitely good. Cliburn seems to be at home with the less Russian of the Russian composers (comparatively of course), in my opinion. He puts in a very healthy combination of technique and pathos in this rendition.
I guess Cliburn will always be part myth/marketing... the tall Texan coming to Russia.
The Rach 2 is ja big dissapointment. In some areas he is fading away behind the orchestra. Listen to the first half minute of Rach2. You call this an exciting opening? More intensity is need here.Listen to the passages that appear in the 5 minute mark. This is supposed to be a strong crescendo leading to a climax and Cliburn/Reiner do this so slowly and deadly.
Any pianist that tries to hide himself/herself behind the orchestra for long periods of time undermines his/her credibility.
Winning a big competition does not a pianist make. Theoretically we have thousands of virtuousos since there are multiple competitions held every year and invariably there are a number of runner ups in said competitions. The top top pianists are a very small subset of "competition winners".
Ashkenazy and Richter have a much better grip over this piece.
Overall Cliburn is not an authority over a large repertoire and again is largely associated with the Tchaikovsky. This CD is a mixed bag of sorts but I guess having more than one interpretation of these concertos is a good idea (I have about 6).
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great piano concertos
Comment: Even though I'm not knowledgeable about other Van Cliburn recordings, this just HAS to be one of his finest! I listened to it for about five hours straight and didn't hear a wrong note anywhere. He played both Concertos with feeling as well as incredible talent. The two Concertos are masterpieces of composition, and when played by Van Cliburn they are absolutely beautiful!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Perfect performance.
Comment: The other reviews have made it perfectly clear that this is perhaps the best performance of the Tchaikovsky 1 ever put on record.The performance of the Rach 2,while it cannot match the wonderful Tchaikovsky 1,is also of first-rate playing.The Tchaikovsky Concerto is a massive work,and Cliburn simply masters it to the uttermost note.I love to hear the piano part in the final Molto meno mosso phrase of the 3rd movement being played so clearly and masculinely.In most recordings,the pianist seems to "disappear" behind the fortissimo of the orchestra in this final phrase.Another recording with the piano resounding above the orchestral tutti is Lang Lang's recording with Barenboim.But Lang's performance simply bows to Cliburn's.
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Editorial Reviews:
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What a story there is behind this recording! When Van Cliburn won the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow at the height of the Cold War with his playing of this concerto, it created an international sensation. The recording followed immediately thereafter, and Cliburn was launched on an international career of unprecedented celebrity for a classical musician. Perhaps the attention was too much, too soon, given his subsequent burn-out and retirement from public life. Fortunately, we have these unique recordings to document what was, by all accounts, a genuine phenomenon. This is the disc "heard 'round the world." --David Hurwitz
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