Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky -- Piano Concerto No. 1 -- Score

Many pieces have a famous story behind them. Some of those stories are of equally famous performances. We have one here.

The launch of Sputnik in 1957 stunned the world, which had no inkling that the Soviet Union was capable of such an impressive technological achievement. The Cold War became even more dangerous, as the same rocket that had lofted the satellite could have easily hurled a hydrogen bomb across the globe. The following year, the USSR wished to demonstrate cultural and artistic superiority as well, inaugurating the International Tchaikovsky Competition for piano and violin, with cello and voice added in subsequent years.

However, this attempt at further bragging went awry as the audiences and jury fell in love with a 24-year-old American pianist. Khrushchev himself was consulted, and simply said "Is he the best? Then give him the prize." Although he was born in Shreveport, Van Cliburn found himself on the cover of Time, dubbed "The Texan Who Conquered Russia".

The piece itself had a rather difficult conception. Tchaikovsky originally intended for the Russian pianist and conductor Nikolai Rubenstein, but when Tchaikovsky performed a preview of the work, Rubenstein deemed it structurally unsound and impossible to perform. This greatly wounded Tchaikovsky, who revised the piece and offered it to the German conductor and pianist Hans von Bülow, who was about to depart on a tour of the United States. Thus, a Russian piano concerto had its world premiere in Boston; it is said that Tchaikovsky may have desired this, so that if the performance was a failure, he would be unlikely to meet anybody who heard it.

After further revisions and consultations with other pianists (Tchaikovsky was competent on the instrument, but no virtuoso himself), an 1876 version became the standard, although an 1879 revision was prepared, and finally recorded in 2015. As for recordings, the one used in this video, with the conductor Cliburn played with in Moscow, became the first classical LP to sell over a million copies (eventually selling three million), and won Cliburn a Grammy for Best Classical Performance.

0:00 First Movement
21:02 Second Movement
28:09 Third Movement

This video is produced for educational purposes, for the benefit of amateurs, enthusiasts, and professional musicians alike. No claim of ownership is made over the component parts of this video.

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Of all the classical piano concerti in music, none is more impressive. Van Cliburn's performance is the finest ever.

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I guess also known as the official unofficial anthem of the Russian Federation since the IOC didn't want the Russian National Anthem to be played for the "totally not Russia" ROC at the 2022 Olympics.