Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; Sergei Rachmaninov - Piano Concertos (Van Cliburn)

Information

Composer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; Sergei Rachmaninov

• Tchaikosky - Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23
• Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18

Van Cliburn, piano

RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra / Kirill Kondrashin

Chicago Symphony Orchestra / Fritz Reiner

Date: 1958; 1962

Label: RCA

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Review

Recorded hot on the heels of his landmark Gold Medal victory in the first Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition, the 23-year-old Van Cliburn’s million-selling 1958 Tchaikovsky First remains one of this war-horse’s most poetic, intelligently paced versions on disc. If an operatic aesthetic governs Cliburn’s golden tone and big technique, the heart of the ballet lies within Kondrashin’s enlivening support, especially in the Finale’s syncopations. Surround-sound technology allows us to appreciate the spatial perspective of the original three-track stereo master. The results prove less dry and more three-dimensional than the standard two-track mixdowns passed down to consumers over the years.

Similar sonic improvement marks Cliburn’s 1962 Rachmaninov Second under Fritz Reiner. However, that doesn’t change my long-held mixed response to the performance. Cliburn’s easygoing line and tendency toward expansive phrasing come alive in the outer movement’s slower episodes and throughout the central movement. Yet friskier, scintillating passages lack fire and vitality, especially when compared to, say, Rubinstein’s dashing interpretation with the same conductor and orchestra six years earlier. I’ll bet that if you played Cliburn and Rubinstein back to back, you’d swear that Cliburn was the older pianist. But Reiner’s dovetailed accompaniments carry Cliburn like a baby, and the Chicago Symphony’s principal winds particularly stand out. In sum–a qualified recommendation for the Rachmaninov, while the Tchaikovsky’s legendary patina has yet to fade. [10/26/2004]

-- Jed Distler

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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Romantic Russian composer. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the current classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto, the Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy, several symphonies, and the opera Eugene Onegin. Despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovsky's life was punctuated by personal crises and depression.

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Sergei Rachmaninov (1 April [O.S. 20 March] 1873 – 28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. He is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music. His music was influenced by Tchaikovsky, Arensky and Taneyev. Rachmaninov wrote five works for piano and orchestra: four concertos and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. He also composed a number of works for orchestra alone, including three symphonies, the Symphonic Dances Op. 45, and four symphonic poems.

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Van Cliburn (July 12, 1934 – February 27, 2013) was an American pianist. He studied the Juilliard School in New York under Rosina Lhévinne, who trained him in the tradition of the great Russian romantics. In 1958, at the age of 23, Cliburn achieved worldwide recognition when he won the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow during the Cold War. Upon returning to the United States, he signed for RCA Victor and performed and recorded through the 1970s. Cliburn played for royalty and heads of state from dozens of countries and for every U.S. president from 1958 until his death.

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