A friend asked me about the ten albums that have most influenced me. Talk about something to celebrate. Music. Ah, where to even begin…
If I had to choose the first album that I connected with -- one that, yes, belonged to my only-classical-music parents but that spoke to me, as well -- it would be Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, in B-flat minor, played by Vladimir Ashkenazy and conducted by Lorin Maazel.
Released by Decca in 1963, this recording encompasses all levels of emotion, from the most dramatic to the extremely delicate. While it is an unusual pick for a child who was not smitten with the performance bug – more on that later – it really makes sense.
After all, doesn’t childhood encompass many different emotions? Some over the course of 20 minutes, the length of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto…