"It's absolutely mind-blowing how titanic he's able to make the piece sound - unlike any other recording of it." "Recently, I've been listening a lot to Alexei Sultanov's performances of it," Yang reflects. "It's also a very emotional work, so it's bound to tug on people's hearts, like it did on mine when I first started learning the piece." "This concerto is so popular because of how easy the melodies are to remember," says pianist Tony Yike Yang, who has played "Tchaik 1" with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Hunan Symphony Orchestra, and has an upcoming performance with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra on Feb. It took approval by then Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev for the jury to award the first prize to an American. Its most famous performance happened at the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1958 - the height of the Cold War - when pianist Van Cliburn played it in the final round. The concerto was an immediate success and has been a staple of the repertoire ever since, its penetration into pop culture later being confirmed by its use on The Simpsons, Mad Men and numerous films. Insulted, Tchaikovsky offered it instead to German pianist Hans von Bülow, who liked it and gave the world premiere during an American tour. But Rubinstein said it was badly written and refused to play it unless Tchaikovsky made important changes. 23, entered the world in 1875 in Boston, of all places.Īnd therein lies a story: Tchaikovsky had written the concerto for his Moscow Conservatory colleague, Nikolay Rubinstein, to play. Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto in B-flat Minor, Op. It's among the most popular works in the entire classical repertoire, a favourite of concert pianists headlining with symphony orchestras the world over.
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