Happy Hump Day!

I was digging around in some boxes I had stored the other day and found some Cd's and DVDs that I had recorded some time ago where I had backed up photo and music files from before my original hard drive on my old Dell computer crashed.  I thought I had lost those files forever, however I am glad I was wrong.  I have since added those files to my new computer and I am enjoying the music as I write these words and the eye candy section for today is comprised of a few of those archived photos I thought I no longer have, all of which are extremely hump able on this midweek Hump Day.  For your listening pleasure today we are moving from European composers to Asian, Russian to be precise and Tchaikovsky in Particular.  Tchaikovsky wrote a great deal of music and I could not begin to cover the breadth and depth of his compositions in one post so our journey of discovery may develop over several more posts.  The pieces I have chosen for today are his Violin Concerto featuring Itzhak Perlman as the soloist and his Piano Concerto Number 1 featuring local favorite and legend, Van Cliburn who won the first Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition at the height of the Cold War in 1958.  The recording I have included is a 1962 recording with the Moscow Symphony, Kirill Kondrashin conducting in a replay of Van Cliburn's competition performance in 1958 which featured the same orchestra and conductor.  An interesting side note at the end of the performance you will notice then Premier Nikita Kruschev applauding enthusiastically for the American performer, notable simply because Premier Kruschev literally hated any and all things American except for Van Cliburn.  I still recall watching him pound the desk with his shoe and screaming at the Americans at the United Nations way back when.  Anyway, both performances are excellent and of course Van Cliburn's is in Black and White instead of color.  Have a great Hump Day, thanks for stopping by, do come again.  Until next time as always, Enjoy