Search - Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, Colin Davis, BBC Symphony Orchestra :: Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1; Violin Concerto

A fantastic Violin Concerto

tuko_the_grim | Chicago, IL | 02/24/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While Claudio Arrau is certainly the name to be recognized on this disc, I find that the true spice in this album is in Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D. It is brilliantly played by Accardo, whose technical prowess as well as emotive transparency shines through. The piece itself, I think, is some of the best violin music ever written, and those looking for a display of amazing technicality (the piece was called unplayably difficult when Tchaikovsky first wrote it) need look no further: think of it as one of Paganini's caprices with a full orchestra behind it. Brilliant! Every time I listen to it (which is often), I am sorry when it's over.Arrau's rendition of the first piano concerto is a bit slow in the first movement, and almost seems deliberate in places. By the third movement, however, he seems to have found his fire and it clips through with a very Russian flavor.The recording quality of this album is impeccable. Every note is clear as a bell. Take, for example, the pizzicato near the beginning of the third movement of the piano concerto, and compare it to Rubinstein's "Great Pianists of the 20th Century." While I prefer Rubinstein's performance to Arrau's, the clarity of the notes is inferior. In the violin concerto the violin is mixed perfectly; it neither overpowers the orchestra nor is swallowed up by it.Overall, I highly recommend this CD for the violin concerto; $8 is nothing for a performance of this calibur. As for the piano concerto, it's certainly not bad, but in all honesty there are _so_ many recordings of this concerto that you can almost certainly find a better one (Horowitz, Argerich, Cliburn, Rubinstein, to name a few). Arrau's rendition does not leave much to be desired, however, and that combined with Accardo's violin concerto warrants 5 stars for this CD."