Customer Reviews

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 / Nutcracker (ballet suite) excerpts ~ Gilels / Reiner

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have 8 recordings of Tchaikovsky's 1st by Gilels; I would say this one ranks in Gilels' top 3 (of his recorded performances). The orchestral accompaniment Gilels' receives from Reiner and the Chicago is better than first-rate (if that is possible!).
One of the previous reviewers mentioned distracting tape splicings, but they are hardly noticeable, even on high-end equipment and unforgiving headphones. Of the easily available Gilels' recordings of the 1st, buy this one! Gilels certainly eclipses Cliburn and Horowitz in this work (Richter isn't on the map).

There is no such things as a definitive performance. But one can say that some performances are so utterly convincing that you are left with a feeling "as if" this must be definitive. The present recording is one of these rare occasions.
Most people who have ever written on it seem to agree. It is true that there is evidence of some splicing; and as a reading of the work, it may not be as "perfect" as one or two of its rivals where every note is absolutely in the right place. What I mean is that the SPIRIT of this performance is such as to invite you to participate in an occasion, an adventure. It is not a picture postcard of an event, but the real thing. This is what's so exciting about it.
This is not even mentioning the wonderfully crafted "fill up", a very generous selection from the Nutcracker ballet.
Gilels recorded this work several times, and the difference to the other stereo recording in print is evident instantly. Just play the first 10 seconds from the Gilels/Maazel recording and then this one: RCA in 1955 (!!) captured a cleaner, better, richer sound than EMI engineers 20 years later. So you are instantly captivated by the sound alone; and then follows the recognition of a performance with tremendous sweep and boldness. I have to say that Reiner is definitely instrumental in helping this along: he was a far better conductor than Maazel could ever aspire to.
In a word: don't worry too much about niggling imperfections. This is a performance for the ages. It will stand as a beacon to the possibilities of transmitting a sense of greatness via recordings that had few equals in the 100 years that we have been making records. I might add, lest you think I'm just carried away by it, that I have been living with this recording (on LP) since about 1960 and had something like 22 rival version in my collection at one time. None of the others convey that same aura of magnificence. American music lovers who evince a hankering for Cliburn Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1; Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 [Hybrid SACD] would find non-Americans immured to it. It is not a great performance, just a great sentimental occasion.

The presence of Emil Gilels was always be synonymous of remarkable interpretative solvency. Although his approach was a mite cold, he had an overall concept of the score and far beyond you were agree or not with his approaches, there was a lot of bulletproof honesty and mercurial conviction that we have to acknowledge.

This version of the First Piano Concerto of Tchaikovsky remains among one of his best achievements ever recorded. Genuine expressiveness, sheer pianism, fluid phrasing and exemplary tune are one the major virtues of this performance.

Highly recommended. .

Generaly speaking, RCA's Living Stereo is a guarantee of sonic quality, but this 1955 Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto sounds thin and glassy--it's by far the worst I've ever heard from this source. It's enough to disqualify the perfomrance for me, but Gilels is a lion at the keyboard. His part is fiery and exciting. Reiner, unfortunately, is stiff and uninterested throughout; tthe second movement lacks the slightest romance or tenderness, and the hectic tempo in the last movement is not so much thrilling as rudely impatient. Too bad, given Gilels' great contribution.

The Nutcracker Suite carries us into a different world. The sonics from 1959 suddenly come alive--nothing could be moee thrilling--and Reiner conducts with everything he's got. This isn't a mre filler--we get 40 min. of the most spirited, precise playing imaginable from the CSO, and the inner life that Reiner communicates shows how off form he was in the concerto. I once took five versions of the Waltz of the Flowers and played them blind for some friends--I didn't know which version was which, either--and unanimously we picked Reiner's performance as the best, along with Igor Markevitch's on a Testament reissue. Five stars for a great performace.

I agree that this recording is thrilling and of significant historical value. However, should we choose a recording based on "historic and political motivation behind it," as the Minnesota listener suggests, or should we stick to artistic, and to a lesser degree, technical merits? You'll have to answer for yourself.

I don't doubt that many recordings made before today's rampant over-editing are in fact better and more coherent performances than the result of all this technology. But, whatever the claims of the liner-notes on this CD, I suspect that the sonic glitches ARE a result of tape edits, because they happen in the same movement (the first). No, I don't have fancy audio equipment, but listening on anything other than a cheap boombox, they are distracting.

The review-writer from Minnesota seems to know a lot about performances, recordings, and this particular recording. He might have been more credible, however, if he hadn't gotten the name of the pianist on this recording wrong in every instance. Gilels (not Giles) was after all one of the two most famous Russian pianists in the 20th, and his name is in big and bold on the CD cover!

...It is passionate, full of all the torment and a Russian brand of sadness that is characteristic of Tchaik's talent. The melodies are beautiful; so much so, that they are constantly being used in movies and popular songs ("Tonight We Love"). The second movement is especially lovely and dream-like.

This version of Tchaik's PC#1 was the first one I ever owned (on LP). I am glad to now own it CD. Gilels is passionate and forceful; Reiner's Chicago Sym. Orch. glimmers as always. The "Nutcracker" is also outstanding; like "Swan Lake" or "Sleeping Beauty" colorful and melodic. Again, Reiner, does not disappoint.

Comparisons for Piano Concero #1: Horowitz/Toscanini; Richter/Karajan

This is one of the great performances of the Tchaikovsky concerto. The playing is absolutely thrilling and breathtaking! This is one of my favorite performances of the concerto along with Cliburn, Horowitz, and Rubinstein. The sound of this CD is a different story. There are many glitches in sound of the concerto where the pitch suddenly changes. Anyone who will be bothered by this should avoid it. It is very distracting, but I refuse to let it get in the way, and I wouldn't give this CD anything but 5 stars for the performance.

Contrary to our friend in St. Louis who spends most of his time nit-picking technical audio alleged problems, this is an outstanding performance.

For those who do not know or may have forgotten, Giles was the first of the Soviet exchange artists who ventured over to the US to perform after the Geneva conference in the summer of 1955. (The other key person was violinist David Oistrach). The recording was made in October, 1955 and was released in record (no pun intended) breaking time for the holidays by RCA. It was probably my first LP that I purchased and it was played to death. It was recorded on Oct 22, 1955 and bought on December 1st on RCA LM-1969. RCA dropped the full price release in 1961 only to reissue it any number of times).

There has been a bit of confusion as to whether RCA recorded the entire or parts of the concerto in stereo or not (which might account for some of the criticism from our friend in St. Louis). We know that RCA was experimenting with stereo (Rubinstein's Brahms' d minor concerto, for example). According to the LP's liner notes the session went on for five hours with both conductor and pianist reviewing the work movement by movement. My bassoon teacher played in the CSO at that time and was more than impressed with what he observed on that cold October Saturday.

As a musician first I have to admit that some of our audiophiles tend to over emphasise the audio rather than what is the main course: the performance itself. There again is the pity of it all: placing the performance as secondary. While it might be nice to have ultra-high end components the only thing better than listening to a piece of music is to play it. One of the reasons some of the old 78's are so important is the fact that we hear an almost live performance. There was no such thing as splicing or editing. If one needs proof just listen to the last movement of the 1930's Horowitz recording of the Rachmoninoff 3rd where entire clusters of notes seem to get dropped. The point is this: good music is best appreciated for what it is rather than what it is being played on. Unless an there is such a grave audio glich that a common person can catch and it and it can harm the performance the performance itself must remain as the primary objective of why it is being listened to.

I have to confess, that on the other hand there is nothing that equals a live performance: what you hear is what you get. According to the liner notes the recording session was done one movement at a time. Perhaps there were make-overs where a note or two might have been dropped. Would it have been better if those minor mistakes were left in making the performance as close to "live" as possible? Is absolute perfection more important than a live performance? Some artists today prefer to do "live performances". Ironically, before the period where perfection was more important than musicianship, even the best of performers were known to drop notes or - in the case of a very famous concert pianist, simply stop in the middle of a performance due to a memory lapse during a live broadcast.

Getting back to the Tchaikovsky: this is an electrifying performance that is a must have not only for the performance but for its historical value. Giles had outstanding technique as displayed in some of the more difficult passages in each of the movements. The orchestra gives him the support he needs. The conducting is up to the high standards that Reiner was able to produce.

As for comparisons, the fantastic Argerich live performance on Philips remains one of the most spectacular recordings released in the past decade. How does it compare with Giles: both our outstanding but in some cases the Giles might hold the edge for the historic and political motivation behind it. With so many different recordings available at this time this work has all but become a warhorse, the above two can easily be recommended with little or no hesitation.

The Nutcracker Excerpts are also worth having. A real pity that RCA could not have found the time to allow Reiner to do the entire ballet. The ensemble playing is absolutly outstanding. If one does not wish to have the entire ballet and will settle for something more than just the traditional suite this is a must have.

This classic performance of the Tchaikovsky concerto is one of the great ones, but some serious glitches in the recording itself are extremely distracting. At several (at least three) points in the first movement, the sound suddenly changes, so that the level drops or the piano-tone sounds very different, or the soloist-orchetra balance is altered. The reasons for this are not clear to me, though I know that it is not a manufacturing defect. If you're looking for a recording of this concerto, you would do better to buy Marth Argerich's 70's studio recording with the Royal Philharmonic under Charles Dutoit (search for "Argerich Tchaikovsky Dutoit"), which is similarly magnificent but doesn't force you to accept any sonic glitches.

This is an excellent Tchaikovsky. Reiner's conducting is superb, Gilels is also outstanding. The sound is wonderful. Anyone who needs a version with outstanding sound and excellent performance can buy this disc with confidence.