Schumann / Tchaikovsky: Piano Concertos

During the late '50s and early '60s, there were two young American pianists who took the musical world by storm: Van Cliburn and Byron Janis. Cliburn had the bigger PR machine, owing to his having won the International Tchaikovsky Competition and his subsequent contract with RCA. But Janis, a pupil of Vladimir Horowitz, was the finer pianist. Curiously, both artists burned out under the pressure of an international career, but Janis left a legacy of superb recordings for Mercury, and this is certainly one of them. Essential for lovers of piano music. --David Hurwitz