Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1 / Rachmaninoff: Concerto No.2
What a story there is behind this recording! When Van Cliburn won the International  Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow at the height of the Cold War with his playing of this concerto, it  created an international sensation. The recording followed immediately thereafter, and Cliburn was  launched on an international career of unprecedented celebrity for a classical musician. Perhaps the  attention was too much, too soon, given his subsequent burn-out and retirement from public life.  Fortunately, we have these unique recordings to document what was, by all accounts, a genuine  phenomenon. This is the disc "heard 'round the world."--David Hurwitz