BaL 3.05.14/5.11.22- Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto no. 1 in B flat minor

[visualnickmos]

Tchaikovsky's piano concerto no 1

I have several recordings of it, and I seem to know it fairly well, but if you asked me which is my favoured choice, I would have no idea. Whichever one I decide to listen to, is the favourite of that moment....

I do have a vinyl of Peter Katin on Decca, which I perhaps enjoy the most.

[Barbirollians]

I see I also have the Curzon/Solti coupled with Curzon's superb recording of the Grieg ( though i cannot recall if the Grieg received a mention on the recent BAL ) - as for that Tchaikovsky one gets the feeling that rather like Richter/Karajan there was not quite a meeting of minds .

[pastoralguy]

I wonder if Ida Heandel will get a mention...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

She might if it were a review of the 2nd Piano Concerto

[Nick Armstrong]

... this is - literally - a work I do not know at all. .... Hitherto unplayed; I must give it a whirl to see why so many people like it....

I'm with you there, vins. However I do have the Sudbin, which I bought for the accompanying Medtner First Concerto. I've only listened to the latter (and the lovely Medtner song arrangement 'filler' by YS). I know that the recording sessions were somewhat ... torrid. However the Tchaikovsky was well reviewed at the time. I wonder if it will figure.

[Barbirollians]

I'm with you there, vins. However I do have the Sudbin, which I bought for the accompanying Medtner First Concerto. I've only listened to the latter (and the lovely Medtner song arrangement 'filler' by YS). I know that the recording sessions were somewhat ... torrid. However the Tchaikovsky was well reviewed at the time. I wonder if it will figure.

Torrid in what sense - the parties did not get on or was it a hot day and the air con failed ?

[Hornspieler]

Does anyone remember "Operation Concerto"?

Stanford Robinson disecting Tchaikovsky Nº 1 piano concerto, with that "King of the Silent Keyboard" Joseph Cooper (no relation to Imogen)demonstrating what his pianistic capability was really like when the sound was added.

The first weary part attempted to analyse the work, with a dialogue between the conductor and soloist..

Then after the interval, Joseph Cooper attempted to perform it. It was so awful that it was worth the price of admission.

Quite a trial for us. You try blowing an instrument and giggling at the same time.

HS

[pastoralguy]

Does anyone remember "Operation Concerto"?

Stanford Robinson disecting Tchaikovsky Nº 1 piano concerto, with that "King of the Silent Keyboard" Joseph Cooper (no relation to Imogen)demonstrating what his pianistic capability was really like when the sound was added.

The first weary part attempted to analyse the work, with a dialogue between the conductor and soloist..

Then after the interval, Joseph Cooper attempted to perform it. It was so awful that it was worth the price of admission.

Quite a trial for us. You try blowing an instrument and giggling at the same time.

HS

Must look on YouTube!

[Nick Armstrong]

Torrid in what sense - the parties did not get on or was it a hot day and the air con failed ?

I don't think there was an air-conditioning issue....

[LeMartinPecheur]

Then after the interval, Joseph Cooper attempted to perform it. It was so awful that it was worth the price of admission.

Quite a trial for us. You try blowing an instrument and giggling at the same time.

HS

Totally libellous HS - I have delightful memories of a Joseph Cooper piano recital from, I guess, the late 70s in which he played the Moonlight sonata...

...well, nearly anyway The last mov't in particular lingers in the memory for all the wrong reasons

[Don Petter]

I remember having an LP of Joseph Cooper playing the Rachmaninov 2nd Concerto with the Sinfonia of London and Marcus Dods on World Record Club. Don't remember him on any mainstream labels.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I remember having an LP of Joseph Cooper playing the Rachmaninov 2nd Concerto with the Sinfonia of London and Marcus Dods on World Record Club. Don't remember him on any mainstream labels.

DP: your memory is exact according to EBay, where you can pick up a nice(?) copy for a mere AU$23.48! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/T-32-JOSEP...-/301015432221

Oddly, I can't find any review of this disc in (eg) the 3 vols of Penguin Guides to the Bargain Classics on my shelves. Did find one featuring (presumably genuinely) the legendary Joyce Hatto though!

[Tony Halstead]

DP: your memory is exact according to EBay, where you can pick up a nice(?) copy for a mere AU$23.48! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/T-32-JOSEP...-/301015432221

Oddly, I can't find any review of this disc in (eg) the 3 vols of Penguin Guides to the Bargain Classics on my shelves. Did find one featuring (presumably genuinely) the legendary Joyce Hatto though!

I have that LP and I have to say that it's actually a pretty good performance - apart from that notorious passage in the 3rd movement from figure 28 to 29 where only S. Richter in his various recordings lets us hear 'all the notes in the right order' and with minimum pedal-blurring.

[Barbirollians]

I have that LP and I have to say that it's actually a pretty good performance - apart from that notorious passage in the 3rd movement from figure 28 to 29 where only S. Richter in his various recordings lets us hear 'all the notes in the right order' and with minimum pedal-blurring.

My grandmother had a cassette of him called Fur Elise playing piano favourites . I don't remember it being bad.

[Don Petter]

DP: your memory is exact according to EBay, where you can pick up a nice(?) copy for a mere AU$23.48! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/T-32-JOSEP...-/301015432221

Oddly, I can't find any review of this disc in (eg) the 3 vols of Penguin Guides to the Bargain Classics on my shelves. Did find one featuring (presumably genuinely) the legendary Joyce Hatto though!

I think it was when World Record Club was still an independent label, before it was absorbed by EMI. At that time, not being mainstream (and possibly still only being available by subscription) they didn't necessarily get reviewed by the pukka publications.

Do others remember their first issues, which came in a standard dark blue plain WRC sleeve, with a sticky label of the particular recording which you had to lick and stick over a rectangular space?