Wiener Symphoniker – Konzert Für Klavier Und Orchester Nr. 1 B-moll

I acquired a 1971 GDR (German Democratic Republic) edition from Austrians, apparently manufactured in the USSR at the Aprelevsky Plant named after Lenin. The sound is excellent—great volume and quality. The German article is well-written, and the portrait of Tchaikovsky from the Tretyakov Gallery is a wonderful touch. This is something I will always listen to, and hopefully, my children will as well... I even turned off the equalizer to hear the intended sound as it was meant to be. A brilliant sound engineer worked on this! I believe this is one of the greatest piano albums of all time!

A cult album. Karajan always did well with Tchaikovsky and if we add a full 10 for Richter, with an orchestra that is not afraid of the Berliner, we have one of the great references, as I said, a must-have album.

This seems to get so many great reviews, and it strikes me as it sounds like two stubborn artists absolutely refusing to acknowledge each other's interpretation of the music. Quite seriously, it's almost as if they were recording on two separate continents, with von Karajan especially lax in the 2nd movement. Not sure HvK could be considered a stellar interpreter of Tchaikovsky anyway... of course, mine seems to be an absolute minority opinion on this performance LOL. Obviously, this is considered a classic recording, and has never been out of print. The Tulip pressing and the one immediately after that (alles hersteller label) certainly SOUND great though... with the second of those named pressings quite possibly having an edge over the earlier one in of clarity and impact. DG was switching from all tube mastering to a hybrid tube/solid state set up around that time. Later in the 60s, DG was using all solid state, which tightened up the bass frequencies on a lot of their recordings, right up until Polydor took over and along with the 70s oil crisis, DG pressing quality took a nose dive.

Beautiful performance & a dynamite recording, well mastered & pressed on whisper quiet hot-wax.

Both cover and labels are stamped "fejlplade" = error lp