A noble yet blistering performance
Van Cliburn (piano)
RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra/
Kirill Kondrashin
RCA G010001770065I
With bravura fanfares and tender reflections – all requiring pristine technique – it’s no wonder that Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto has long been a competition favourite. Beatrice Rana’s flawless performance of the work at the Montreal International Music Competition in 2011 won her first prize; her follow-up performance in 2014 at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition led to a Warner Classics recording with Antonio Pappano and the Orchestra dell’accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia that was a strong contender for this category.
Rana has followed in the footsteps of Van Cliburn, the Texan pianist who gave his name to the quadrennial competition, and who also gave a career-changing performance of the Tchaikovsky Concerto.
In 1958, Van Cliburn arrived in Moscow to participate in the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition. By the time he played the Concerto in the final (with the Moscow Radio Symphony under
Kirill Kondrashin), he had become known affectionately as ‘Vanyusha’ or ‘Vanyitschka’. Jurors were nervous about giving an American first place – the competition had been held in part to showcase Soviet cultural supremacy and distrust between the US and USSR was ever increasing. But in a show of artistic unity, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev is reported to have said that the best pianist should win, no matter what their nationality. Van Cliburn repeated his winning performance of the Tchaikovsky Concerto back in the US, having invited Kirill Kondrashin to join him on an impromptu tour. The concerto was performed twice in Carnegie Hall, where this recording was made.
Van Cliburn takes the opening big chords at a pleasant, stately pace, imbuing
Van Cliburn takes the opening big chords at a pleasant, stately pace
the cascading melody with a restrained power. The fragmented notes of the middle section are beautifully clear, as is the rumbling lower-octave section (in some recordings the phrase seems to disappear off an edge). The piano does feel a little tinny towards the end of the movement, but not enough to distract from an otherwise triumphant account.
The Andantino semplice is more elongated than many modern readings – with the exception of Kissin (see above).
Yet the sentimentality is leavened by a thrilling finale complete with a blistering keyboard ascent.