Clara Rockmore - Valse Sentimentale (Tchaikovsky)
I know, it's a terrible faux pas. When you list a piece of classical music, you're supposed to give first credit to the composer, not the performer. It's a pretty good rule, too. Most of the time you're far more likely to know that you want to listen to a piece written by Handel than a piece played by Alfred Brendel. But with Clara Rockmore, it's rather different.

Rockmore, who died in 1998, was perhaps the world's foremost player of the theremin. With perfect pitch and remarkable control, she strove to prove the instrument worthy of concert hall performance. Here's her famous rendition of Valse Sentimentale, from Tchaikovsky's Six Morceaux. It's... well actually the most striking thing is just how dated it sounds. Rockmore is incredibly heavy on the vibrato. In her hands this piece, gushingly romantic at the best of times, becomes almost overbearingly melodramatic.

Perhaps that's not surprising. Clara Rockmore was at the peak of her popularity in the 1930s. Yes, the performance style here is deeply unfashionable. But it's the grande dame airs combined with the radiophonic clarity of the theremin that makes this piece what it is: unique and wonderful.

Clara Rockmore - Valse Sentimentale (Tchaikovsky)