Here is a superb as well as nostalgic reminder of why Cyril Smith (1909-74) was among Rachmaninov’s favoured interpreters. Many of today’s pianists may balk at Smith’s no-nonsense musicianship. Yet even as they yearn for a greater sense of gloom and solemnity they may well wonder at a fleetness, assurance and unforced eloquence that recall the composer himself. Everything is kept smartly on the move yet the playing is as affectionate as it is vigorous. In the Second Concerto there is a thrilling rush of blood to the head at 5'48'' and a daringly free approach to tempo in the central Adagio. Terms such as un poco piu mosso (4'22'') are interpreted with a salty brio and leeway, yet Smith’s way with the finale’s second subject dolce is sufficiently glowing and heart-easing to make many modern pianists sound pedestrian and unromantic by comparison.
The Paganini Rhapsody, too, finds Smith scintillatingly alive to Rachmaninov’s awakened energies in the New World. Others may be more openly caressing in Var. 18 or achieve greater mystery in Var. 17 (here Smith’s gruff forte amusingly testifies to his blunt refusal of all possible mawkishness or sentimentality) but elsewhere – in the whirling reel of Variation 15, for example – his performance is memorably fluent and bracing.
Finally, and for extra good measure, there is the Second Suite and a further reminder, this time of Cyril Smith’s legendary partnership with Phyllis Sellick that lasted even after 1956 – the year of Smith’s stroke – when, nothing daunted, the two continued, their courage and brilliance evoked in Smith’s autobiography, Duet for Three Hands (London: 1958). Less glamorous or vertiginous than, say, Martha Argerich and Nelson Freire, they none the less achieve an enviable naturalness and rapport and a pace and vitality that have nothing to do with show and everything to do with musical quality. Michael Dutton’s transfers of discs dating from 1947-8 have come up trumps and this record will surely win a new generation of admirers for a sometimes unsung pianist and hero.'