# Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1



## ClassicalMusicLover1 (May 2, 2017)

There is a great lesson that we all can learn from Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto Number 1. It was common at the time to dedicate a piece of music to the musician whom you wanted to perform the music, usually a famous performer. Dedication insured that a piece of music would see the light of day and also provided an endorsement of the piece. Tchaikovsky dedicated his first piano concerto to Nikolai Rubenstein. Nikolai was considered to be one of the greatest pianists of his time, and he and his brother Anton Rubenstein were important figures in Russian musical culture. In fact, Anton was Tchaikovsky's composition teacher. (There is no relation between the Rubenstein brothers and Arthur Rubenstein, the twentieth-century Polish pianist I told you about previously).

So Tchaikovsky dedicates his concerto to Nikolai. Excited, he plays it for Nikolai, who listens in silence … and then he tells Tchaikovsky what he thinks of it. Here is what Tchaikovsky wrote about this scene to his pen pal Nadezhda Von Meck:

"It turned out that my concerto was worthless and unplayable; passages were so fragmented, so clumsy, so badly written that they were beyond rescue; the work itself was bad, vulgar; in places I had stolen from other composers; only two or three pages were worth preserving; the rest must be thrown away or completely rewritten. "Here, for instance, this - now what's all that?" (he caricatured my music on the piano) "And this? How can anyone …" etc., etc."

Just imagine someone you respect and admire, who has incredible influence, just called two years of your work "pathetic." Tchaikovsky was genuinely hurt, but he pledged that he would not change a single note. He reached out to a famous German pianist, Hans von Bulow, and asked if he could dedicate this concerto to him. At the time, Von Bulow was preparing to go on tour to the United States. He loved the concerto! And thus Tchaikovsky's First was first performed in Boston in 1875. It was a great success. Music critics still found a lot of faults in it. It did not fit the established framework: the introduction, the part that makes this concerto so grand, is almost a self-contained piece of music that is attached to the concerto.

Here is the punchline. Later that year, a few months after the Boston performance, the concerto premiered in St Petersburg and then in Moscow. Nikolai Rubenstein conducted the Moscow premier. Rubenstein performed the piano solo many times and even asked to premier Tchaikovsky's second piano concerto. Tchaikovsky would have consented if Rubenstein have not died.

What is the lesson here? Even people you respect make mistakes. Believe in yourself. I could go on and on, but I won't. Here is 23-year-old Evgeny Kissin performing this great concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra 110 years later.

http://myfavoriteclassical.com/tchaikovskys-piano-concerto-no-1/


----------



## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

I just listened last night the recording with Richter accompanied by Karen Ancerl and the Czech PO. So many great recordings of this piece!


----------



## Forss (May 12, 2017)

Thanks for sharing this lovely story! I can really see how Mr. Tchaikovsky must've been a most decent man.

For my part, I am somewhat ambivalent towards this remarkable piece. I like the grandiose opening very much, of course, considering I am a (primitive) human being, etc., but I still feel as though I see to the bottom at my very first encounter with it, whereas e.g. I always discover new things in, say, Beethoven's or Schumann's music.

This particular piece seems to me to be all "out there", as it were, and I prefer the more "composed" work of art. "In every great work of art there is a WILD animal: _tamed_. (Wittgenstein) - This proposition, I think, adequately illustrates my point.


----------



## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

The opening is really the only part I like, and which stands out. :devil: All the rest is just standard romantic concerto fare, like Grieg's, Schumann's, Mendelssohn's. Schumann's probably stands out above the others.


----------



## Jacred (Jan 14, 2017)

Music can take many years to become accepted but a good composer always has faith in his or her works. Thank you for writing such a beautiful account of this story.


----------



## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

Argerich/Abbado/BPO is such an astounding recording of this work. Very highly recommended if you haven't heard it. Unsurpassed.


----------



## CDs (May 2, 2016)

AfterHours said:


> Argerich/Abbado/BPO is such an astounding recording of this work. Very highly recommended if you haven't heard it. Unsurpassed.


I don't know about unsurpassed. Van Cliburn's is quite good!


----------



## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

CDs said:


> I don't know about unsurpassed. Van Cliburn's is quite good!


My favourite. More warmth than Argerich's I thought. I hate the loud trumpets though, they are a bit off time at times too in the grand opening.


----------



## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

CDs said:


> I don't know about unsurpassed. Van Cliburn's is quite good!


Yes, possibly my next choice. I do stand by my assertion that Argerich/Abbado is even better though, but perfectly okay if you prefer Cliburn's


----------



## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

Phil loves classical said:


> My favourite. More warmth than Argerich's I thought. I hate the loud trumpets though, they are a bit off time at times too in the grand opening.


But ... but ... you hardly even like the piece anyway


----------



## CDs (May 2, 2016)

AfterHours said:


> Yes, possibly my next choice. I do stand by my assertion that Argerich/Abbado is even better though, but perfectly okay if you prefer Cliburn's


I'll have to check out the Argerich/Abbado version.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

The immortal performance by Van Cliburn with Kondrashin. Never been bettered!


----------



## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

AfterHours said:


> But ... but ... you hardly even like the piece anyway


I don't have to really like it to know that Cliburn's is exceptional and probably ideal.


----------



## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

I heard a atory that Sviatoslav Richter was a judge in the Tchaikovsky competition, and he gave Cliburn's a 10/10 and all the other contestants a 0/10, and he was never invited back as a judge as a result. :lol:


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Cliburn won the judges' vote. I read that the head of the panel of judges was very nervous about awarding the prize to an American since the US and the USSR were always threatening to blow each other up in those days. He went to Khrushchev and asked what should be done. Khrushchev said, "Well, was he really the best? Then what's the problem?"


----------



## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

Phil loves classical said:


> I don't have to really like it to know that Cliburn's is exceptional and probably ideal.


Hmmmmmm ... no comment :tiphat:


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Phil loves classical said:


> I heard a atory that Sviatoslav Richter was a judge in the Tchaikovsky competition, and he gave Cliburn's a 10/10 and all the other contestants a 0/10, and he was never invited back as a judge as a result. :lol:


Knowing that, I will invite him over for a slice or two of rumcake.


----------



## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

Phil loves classical said:


> I heard a atory that Sviatoslav Richter was a judge in the Tchaikovsky competition, and he gave Cliburn's a 10/10 and all the other contestants a 0/10, and he was never invited back as a judge as a result. :lol:


Would that be the Richter scale?


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Phil loves classical said:


> I don't have to really like it to know that Cliburn's is exceptional and probably ideal.


He didn't win the Tchaikovsky Competition on his boyish good looks. He won it by playing extraordinary performances of Tchaikovsky 1 and Rachmaninov 3.

I was fortunate to hear Cliburn do the Tchaikovsky live. :clap:


----------



## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

CDs said:


> I'll have to check out the Argerich/Abbado version.


Available on Spotify as follows: http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/imgs/s300x300/4794155.jpg

Available on Youtube: 
(1st Movement) 



(2nd Movement) 



(3rd Movement)


----------



## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

hpowders said:


> The immortal performance by Van Cliburn with Kondrashin. Never been bettered!


That one is very fine. my favorite is Gilels/Reiner....Gilels always powerful, ye poetic, soloist/orchestra great energy throughout...great last mvt, really rollicking...


----------



## CDs (May 2, 2016)

AfterHours said:


> Available on Spotify as follows: http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/imgs/s300x300/4794155.jpg
> 
> Available on Youtube:
> (1st Movement)
> ...


How does the Argerich/Chailly version compare to the Argerich/Abbado verision?


----------



## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Phil loves classical said:


> I heard a atory that Sviatoslav Richter was a judge in the Tchaikovsky competition, and he gave Cliburn's a 10/10 and all the other contestants a 0/10, and he was never invited back as a judge as a result. :lol:


Richter's explanation for his bizarre marking system was that van Cliburn could play and the rest couldn't!


----------



## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

KenOC said:


> Cliburn won the judges' vote. I read that the head of the panel of judges was very nervous about awarding the prize to an American since the US and the USSR were always threatening to blow each other up in those days. He went to Khrushchev and asked what should be done. Khrushchev said, "Well, was he really the best? Then what's the problem?"


There was a problem in that for the second competition the Russians made Ashkenazy enter even though he was not keen on Tchaikovsky 1 as it wasn't his piece. They then had the problem with John Ogdon's performances which drove the crowd wild. They compromised - a Russian had to win it but the Brit could share the prize.


----------



## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

CDs said:


> How does the Argerich/Chailly version compare to the Argerich/Abbado verision?


I'd have to revisit it to give specifics, but I remember that one being very very good. But Argerich/Abbado is one of those renditions that is the absolute pinnacle for a given work, and I've never heard another that I've considered its true equal. Except ... it is possible the ultra-famous late-30's Horowitz/Toscanini might have been on that level -- if it could be experienced vividly enough to know. But alas, it cannot with such horrible sound quality. One can only determine it is a possibility by what one can make out amidst its muffled, broken resonance (the fact that it's still excellent regardless of this is a testament to how it might have sounded during the actual performance).

*EDIT: I meant the 1943 Horowitz/Toscanini: *


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

CDs said:


> I don't know about unsurpassed. Van Cliburn's is quite good!


Not just good, stunning more like .


----------



## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Got it by Stephen Hough, Minnesota Orchestra conducted by Osmo Vanska. One of the best ones I have heard. Just plays it beautifully!!


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto N° 1 - Daniil Trifonov
, Gergiev & Münchner Philharmoniker


----------



## CDs (May 2, 2016)

AfterHours said:


> I'd have to revisit it to give specifics, but I remember that one being very very good. But Argerich/Abbado is one of those renditions that is the absolute pinnacle for a given work, and I've never heard another that I've considered its true equal. Except ... it is possible the ultra-famous late-30's Horowitz/Toscanini might have been on that level -- if it could be experienced vividly enough to know. But alas, it cannot with such horrible sound quality. One can only determine it is a possibility by what one can make out amidst its muffled, broken resonance (the fact that it's still excellent regardless of this is a testament to how it might have sounded during the actual performance).
> 
> *EDIT: I meant the 1943 Horowitz/Toscanini: *


I ended up getting the Argerich/Chailly & Kondrashin CD on Philips. Found it for a good price at my local store.


----------



## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

CDs said:


> I ended up getting the Argerich/Chailly & Kondrashin CD on Philips. Found it for a good price at my local store.


Excellent choice. It is one of the better renditions of Tchaikovsky 1 and an unsurpassable rendition of Rach 3rd (if I'm thinking of the same CD you are).


----------



## CDs (May 2, 2016)

^ I'm looking into getting her "Concerto Recordings" box set on DG and it has her Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto with Abbado.


----------



## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

CDs said:


> ^ I'm looking into getting her "Concerto Recordings" box set on DG and it has her Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto with Abbado.


That is the one to get for sure!


----------

