Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto 1 [Engerer/ Krivine-Royal Philharmonic Orchestra]The Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto is certainly not my favourite Concerto, in fact far from it, i have problems with it, the opening tune is fantastic, one of the very best things Tchaikovsky has ever done, but then... the whole thing descends into dribs and drabs of tunes and solos, starts and stops, sometimes sounding mismatched and out of place, plus this glorious opening tune is not really used as a basis to build on, it comes once and you never hear it again, now if Tchaikovsky had made a 'Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra', based on this opening, it would have been a real hit!.
However... in saying all of that, i actually did enjoy this Concerto today, i haven't heard it for a really long time, i haven't got a lot of recordings of it, and i bought this recording for the Schumann Concerto, and i wish it had been coupled with the Grieg, but it's good to listen to something that you're not really wowed about, an old workhorse that you put out to pasture might surprise you one day!.
The first movement of course is a powerhouse of a marvellous tune, starting with the horn fanfares [0:00-0:14], and then the piano hammers out those chords [0:14-1:00], the orchestra quickly joins in [0:17-1:00], with such a sublime tune, masterful and endearing, the piano then plays its own solo cadenza [1:03-2:38], which turns back into the main theme with orchestra, and returns with real power [2:38-3:21], with the piano again hammering out chords, then... the whole thing seems to break down into little episodes taped together, structurally there seems to be holes, like a major cut and paste job, even though i now realise most of the following material is derived from the initial opening, my final summary is that the concerto is a big wonderful 3 minute tune, followed by seemingly aimless meanderings and afterthoughts from the Composer on this 'theme', all stuck together haphazardly with sticky tape.
Here's Martha Argerich playing the first movement on YouTube.
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