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...

The overture will be very loud and noisy, but probably has no artistic merit, as I wrote it without either warmth or love. --Tchaikovsky, writing about the 1812 Overture to his patron Madame von Meck Tchaikovsky wasn't the only critic of his 1812 Overture . There isn't a music pundit anywhere who hasn't said something witheringly condescending about this work ("it is filled with cheap thrills," sneers my trusty Essential Canon of Classical Music). 1812 is the bane of high school bands anywhere and an eye-roll-inducer at summer pops orchestras everywhere. And despite all this, it remains one of the most electrifying works of classical music ever written. ********************** Neeme Jarvi and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra Tchaikovsky (1841-1904); Borodin (1833-1887); Rimsky Korsakov (1844-1908) Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture and Marche Slave Alexander Borodin: Polovtsian Dances and In The Steppes of Central Asia Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Russian Easter Festival O...

"Inspiration is a guest that does not willingly visit the lazy." --Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ************************** The more I learn about Tchaikovsky, the more I see him as one of the most inspiring composers in all of classical music. Here was a man who suffered throughout his life. His mother died when he was an adolescent. He was mentally unstable during much of his adulthood, suffering from depression at best and derangement at worst. And he was a gay man living in a society that considered homosexuality to be criminal. As if these enormous hardships weren't enough, he had just as many barriers blocking him from his dreams to become a composer: he had almost no background in the subject, having chosen a more "respectable" career in law. He had little musical training and less compositional training. He knew nothing of harmony, counterpoint or music theory. Worst of all, his first attempts at composition have been charitably described as "feeble....

Today we'll cover Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony, from a live CD recording by the Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of Valery Gergiev. ********************** Valery Gergiev and the Wiener Philharmoniker Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 Philips, 2004 ********************** The Sixth was Tchaikovsky's last symphony, and many music historians consider it his requiem, as he died just nine days after the work's premier. Also, the circumstances surrounding his death were unclear--did he die of cholera, or did he commit suicide?--adding to the controversy surrounding this composer's already highly controversial life. We'll discuss more about Tchaikovsky's life, and in particular his, uh, eccentric personal life, in future posts. Listener notes for Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony: 1) It's strange, but after really enjoying this symphony earlier this year (on another CD), I seem to have gone a bit limp on Tchaikovsky's Sixth....

I can't help but laugh when I see this CD, because each time I pull it from my shelf I always say to myself, "this disc is pathetic!" But of course that's not true. This disc contains two classical music's most beautiful works. ******************* Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Beethoven (1770-1827) Piano Sonata #8 in C minor "Pathetique" Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) Symphony #6 "Pathetique" Teldec, 1998 ******************* However, beyond their similar names, there is next to no similarity between these two works--one of which is a sonata for unaccompanied piano, and the other a symphony. Beethoven's piano sonatas are practically a genre unto themselves, and some of them can be difficult at first for for new classical music listeners to appreciate (this was certainly true for me). We'll tackle additional Beethoven piano sonatas in the coming months. In any event, these two preposterously disparate works supposedly fit t...

Lorin Maazel and the Cleveland Orchestra Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) Romeo & Juliet Symphony #4 in F minor Telarc, 1993 ******************************* Today's post brings back memories. Terrible memories. Romeo and Juliet was a piece our high school symphonic band played, and in the arrangement for concert band, inexplicably, the trumpets had to play a lot of the technically demanding runs that would have been assigned to the strings in the orchestral/original version. Now, anybody who knows high school music programs knows that high school trumpet players, mostly boys, don't practice like the predominantly flute- or clarinet-playing girls. So our band director, Mr. I, growing increasingly frustrated with our muddy sound, went "down the line." Meaning, he made each individual trumpet player play the run by himself. In front of the rest of the band. Which included all the girls in the clarinet and flute section in front of us who turned around to look and watch us scr...