Enigma

About

In his fantasy on a theme from a 16th-century psalm setting, Ralph Vaughan Williams combines church-tonal harmony with impressionistic orchestral colors with magical ease, while Edward Elgar portrays his friends and himself musically in the Enigma Variations with humor and virtuosity. Both works established the international fame of their composers. Pjotr ​​Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto is also virtuosic and spirited, which the pianist Nikolai Rubinstein devastatingly judged as "worthless" and "bad" after the first hearing. History should not prove him right: to this day, the work is the most popular piano concerto ever.