101 Classical Music CDs

Laura: What are you listening to? Dan: Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto. L: Which one? D: He only wrote one. L: So Violin Concerto Number 1 then? D: Uh, well, just "Violin Concerto." I think. If you thought the critical reaction to Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 was bad, wait until you hear about the abuse heaped upon his Violin Concerto . ********************** Erich Leinsdorf and the Boston Symphony Orchestra Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) Itzhak Perlman, Violin Violin Concerto Piano Concerto No. 1 RCA/Papillon, 1987 ********************** Despite the fact that Tchaikovsky dedicated the work to Leopold Auer, a famous violinist of the time, Auer refused to play it, considering it too technically difficult. Later, violinist Adolf Brodsky, a fellow Russian, performed the work for an audience in Vienna in 1881--and the audience hissed (apparently, booing didn't become popular in Europe until years later). Worse still were the critical reviews. As the ...

I replied that I would not alter a single note, and that I would have the concerto printed exactly as it stood. --Tchaikovsky, reacting to Nikolai Rubinstein's harsh criticism of Piano Concerto #1 Today's CD contains one of the very few examples of CD liner notes that are not only comprehensible, but actually fun to read. ********************** Erich Leinsdorf and the Boston Symphony Orchestra Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) Misha Dichter, Piano Piano Concerto No. 1 Violin Concerto RCA/Papillon, 1987 ********************** In a (sadly uncredited) essay, readers learn the story about the reaction Tchaikovsky received when he showed his first piano concerto to his boss at the Moscow Conservatory, Nikolai Rubenstein: "Rubinstein excoriated the work after a private hearing.... Tchaikovsky was pitilessly flayed for what Rubenstein charged was tawdry, plagiaristic and unpianistic. The irate pedagogue even went to the piano and burlesqued page after page." Tchaikovsky...

Saint-Saens knows everything, but he lacks inexperience. --Hector Berlioz It's safe to say that Camille Saint-Saens' life was far more interesting than his music. ********************** James Levine and the Berliner Philharmoniker Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3 "Organ" Dukas: L'Apprenti Sorcier (The Sorcerer's Apprentice) Deutsche Grammophon, 1987 ********************** He was a true polymath: a musical prodigy, a scientist, a philosopher, a travel writer, a poet and a composer. He lived a life filled with tragedy: when Saint-Saens was in his early forties, his two-and-a-half-year-old son died in a fall from the balcony of his Paris apartment. Just six weeks later, his other son died of pneumonia at just seven months of age. And three years after these incomprehensible tragedies, he walked out on his wife--in the middle of a vacation they were taking together! He left a note for her at their hotel and simply left. Today we'll g...

He has captured the click of castanets, the strumming of guitars, the thud of muffled dreams, the harsh better wail of Gypsy lament, the overwhelming gaiety of the village band, and above all, the wiry tension of the Spanish dance. --Ralph Kirkpatrick, harpsichordist and Scarlatti biographer Quite frankly, it's pure luck that any of Domenico Scarlatti's beautiful music survived at all. ********************** Ivo Pogorelich, piano Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) Scarlatti: Sonaten Deutsche Grammophon, 1992 ********************** The original manuscripts of his famous harpsichord sonatas were discarded upon his death, and if it weren't for his wife who had seen to it that his work was copied, his entire oeuvre would likely have disappeared down the memory hole. Worse, even those copies were ignored for more than a century. Scarlatti was born into an extremely musical family in Italy, and he was a startlingly talented harpsichordist. But it wasn't until he left Italy to be ...