# Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto 1



## marlow (11 mo ago)

This great concerto is regarded as a ‘warhorse’ by some but played by most great pianists. Last week Joanne McGregor on the BBC Record Review recommended Martha Argerich with Abaddo as the choice. I’ve got loads of recordings which I’m going to have a go at but wondered which ones interest you?


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Besides Argerich I like Andrei Gavrilov -Yevgeny Sudbin and Simon Trpčeski very much, powerful playing.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

My favorites are all older, but the newer Stephen Hough with Andrew Litton on Hyperion is quite good, too. 

Gilels/Reiner on RCA may be old, but who cares? Great musicianship.
Graffman/Szell on Sony is still "pure gold" as a contemporary review labeled it. Szell hated the concerto, but you wouldn't know it.
Freire with Rudolf Kempe is a knockout, too bad the sound is not better.
Argerich with Dutoit - am I alone in preferring it to the Abaddo remake?


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

A great concerto! One of my absolute favorites, exceeded only by Grieg's beautiful Piano Concerto.

I agree Argerich with Abbado is a great recording of the concerto, so is her recording with Dutoit. Another I adore is Lazar Berman's with Berlin and Karajan. I am also fairly fond of is Van Cliburn's with Kondrashin and the "RCA Victor SO".


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## dko22 (Jun 22, 2021)

Although I'm not very interested in this concerto, I did listen to the _Building a Library_ and, somewhat unusually, I entirely agreed with the choice of Argerich here and found myself more wound up by the piece than is usually the case. A runner-up, Vänskä/Hough, on the other hand, I didn't like at all.


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

marlow said:


> This great concerto is regarded as a ‘warhorse’ by some but played by most great pianists. Last week Joanne McGregor on the BBC Record Review recommended Martha Argerich with Abaddo as the choice. I’ve got loads of recordings which I’m going to have a go at but wondered which ones interest you?



Thanks for pointing this out, I often listen to BBC Record Review, particularly if I like the composition, but somehow missed this edition with one of my absolute favorite compositions by my favorite composer! Listening now, while it is still available in their archives.


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## Brahmsianhorn (Feb 17, 2017)

I also prefer Argerich/Dutoit to her remake, and it’s my top recommendation for a recording in good sound.

But by far my favorite T1 is Horowitz/Toscanini live at Carnegie Hall from 1943, the war bonds concert. This was my first “historical” recording purchase back in the 90s, and it opened my eyes that premium sound was not the end all, be all. You just don’t hear performances like this one anymore. The intensity is unreal.


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## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

marlow said:


> This great concerto is regarded as a ‘warhorse’ by some but played by most great pianists.


The "warhorse" metaphor is in itself a tired cliché. Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 will reach its 150th birthday in 2025. The piano concerto repertoire is selective; there are hundreds of concertos that audiences will never hear. That soloists like to play Tchaikovsky 1 and audiences like to hear it shows its staying power.


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## Chopinist (3 mo ago)

A great concerto! Used to be my favourite, but then I found Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto 3.


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## damianjb1 (Jan 1, 2016)

Chopinist said:


> A great concerto! Used to be my favourite, but then I found Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto 3.


Whilst I love the Rach 3 my favourites are the the two Brahms concertos.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

I just realized a weird coincidence in regards to this concerto. As it turns out, this weekend I am in Boston - where the concerto was first performed. And today I was at an anitquarian book fair at the Hynes Convention Center and lo and behold, I was able to grab Alan Walker's biography of Hans von Bulow - that muti-talented musician who played the piano part in that first performance. The weirdness would be complete if the concerts tonight and tomorrow had the concerto, but they don't.


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## golfer72 (Jan 27, 2018)

This concerto hooked me on Classical music. Still have the CD i bought some 35 or so years ago ( Argerich,Kondrashin, Bavarian orch) on Phillips. Analog to boot!!!


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## gnail (Jan 5, 2021)

Richter / Karajan for me but then I have not heard a lot.


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## marlow (11 mo ago)

Anyone heard Pletnev’s imperious account?


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## Scherzi Cat (8 mo ago)

I'm very fond of *Alice Sara Ott*'s recording with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Thomas Hengelbrock.





Also the beautiful Olga Shepps' recording with Carlos Dominguez-Nieto is wonderful performance but the sonics aren't as nice as Ott's.


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

Here are a few favorite performances of Tchaikovsky's PC No. 1:


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## marlow (11 mo ago)

Just listening to Shura Cherkassky from 1950. Sound limited but performance magical.


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

If this were a poll, this concerto would receive the highest rating I could give it. I think it's a masterpiece and having heard many performances of it over the years, I still marvel at its melodic invention, emotional directness and, most of all, beauty. I love each movement, but the slow middle movement has some of the most exquisite piano writing I've ever heard from a Romantic Era composer.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Obviously, there are many fine recordings of this work.

Among the few recordings of the slightly different _Original Version (1874),_ I only own the old LP with Berman and Temirkanov, on Koch-Schwann vms 1644, but it's the later, usual version that is the best musically. Likewise, there are for example many Richter, Argerich, Horowitz and Gilels recordings. As regards Horowitz, the most well-known with Toscanini has rather aggressive recorded sound, and it is actually not the most feverish of his early recordings, IMHO. Also, early Rubinstein is very different and more temperamental, than later Rubinstein. Pogorelich's became famous for focusing on a certain ~Brahmsian, architectural coolness in the work, as opposed to the often-accentuated Slavic temper.

These constitute what I own/have kept (it is one of the classical works with most versions in my collection):

_CD Richter,Kondrashin,MosStSO/rev 68-97 rv 10057
cd Richter,Ancerl,CzPO/int media 54-xx 10cd 233080
CD Richter,Mravinsky,LenPO/bramant 57-94 bbbcd9004
LP Richter,Mravinsky,LenPO/mel-eurod mono 87692 xak
LP Richter,Ancerl (?),CzPO/sup dv 5217 mono
CD Richter,Karajan,WSO/DG
cd Richter,Karajan,VSO/regis 1962 6cd rrc6011
LP Richter,Karajan,WSO/dg 62 139 822
cd Horowitz,Walter,NY PO/iron needle 4/48 ir 1398
cd Horowitz,Toscanini,NBC/int.mu.co. 41-99 20.3166
cd Horowitz,Toscanini,NBC/membr 41 222353-354
cd Horowitz,Toscanini,NBC/hall fame 5cd 220035 (1941)
LP Horowitz,Toscanini,NBCSO/rca 43-8x vl 46016
LP Horowitz,Toscanini,NBCSO/rca ?? mono a12 0282
LP Horowitz,Szell,NYPO/mov mus mn 4.5.52-81 01.008
cd Gilels,Kondrashin,USSR StO 1949/brill 10cd 92615
cd Gilels,Ivanov,USSRRSO/hänssl 15cd 51-20 ph17066
cd Gilels,Reiner,ChicSO/hänssl 15cd 55-20 ph17066
LP Gilels,Reiner,ChicSO/rca st ccv 5016
cd Rubinstein,Barbirolli,LSO/nax 32-08 8.111271
cd Rubinstein,Mitropoulos,MinneaSO/tim 10cd 47-03 220833 303
LP Rubinstein,Mitropoulos,MinneaSO/rca mono lm 1028
LP Rubinstein,Mitropoulos,MinnSO/emi mono falp 275
cd Rubinstein,Rodzinski,NY/mem 4cd 46-05 222361-354
LP Argerich,Dutoit,RPO/dg 71-78 2535 295
LP Argerich,Kondrashin,BayRSO/ph 6414 118
LP Pogorelich,Abbado,LSO/dg-eterna 85 725 100
LP Solomon,Dobrowen,PO/emi mono clp 1001
LP Farnadi,Scherchen,WStOp/west-heliod mono 478 022
LP Schiøler,Tuxen,DRSO/tono mono lpx 35001 (Behrend)
LP Levant,Ormandy,PhiladO/columbia mono ml 4883
lp Arrau,Galliera,Philh/emi1c 061 697 
LP Cliburn,Kondrashin,SO/rcs 58 st lsc2252
LP Serebryakov,Mravinsky,LenPO/saga "st" 1971 5043
cd Han,Freeman,StPPO/brill 15cd 95520
lp Wild,Fistoulari,RPO/quintess pmc 7003 (Lee)_


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

A dark horse worth seeking out is 16 yo Sokolov after having won the competition in 1966. This used to be on cheap "Karussell" or Belart? cassette/LP/CD but there was a more recent issue, maybe with SaintSaens #2. Cond. N. Järvi


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## marlow (11 mo ago)

There is a version by Clifford Curzon with Fistoulari (mono but good sound) and one with Julius KatChen which started me off as a classical collector.


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## Brahmsianhorn (Feb 17, 2017)

marlow said:


> There is a version by Clifford Curzon with Fistoulari (mono but good sound) and one with Julius KatChen which started me off as a classical collector.


Wow, I didn’t know there was a Curzon out there


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## marlow (11 mo ago)

There is a very good one from Byron Janis with LSO / Menges


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## Branko (3 mo ago)

Brahmsianhorn said:


> Wow, I didn’t know there was a Curzon out there


I know of a Curzon/Solti Vienna Phil 1958. Have not listened to this for a while.


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