Rachmaninov Complete Piano Concertos
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Sergey Rachmaninov
Label: Decca
Magazine Review Date: 4/1989
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 134
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 421 590-2DH2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
(Royal) Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam Bernard Haitink, Conductor Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer Vladimir Ashkenazy, Piano |
| Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
(Royal) Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam Bernard Haitink, Conductor Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer Vladimir Ashkenazy, Piano |
| Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3 |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
(Royal) Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam Bernard Haitink, Conductor Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer Vladimir Ashkenazy, Piano |
| Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 4 |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
(Royal) Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam Bernard Haitink, Conductor Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer Vladimir Ashkenazy, Piano |
Composer or Director: Sergey Rachmaninov
Label: Decca
Magazine Review Date: 4/1989
Media Format: Cassette
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 421 590-4DH2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
(Royal) Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam Bernard Haitink, Conductor Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer Vladimir Ashkenazy, Piano |
| Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
(Royal) Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam Bernard Haitink, Conductor Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer Vladimir Ashkenazy, Piano |
| Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3 |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
(Royal) Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam Bernard Haitink, Conductor Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer Vladimir Ashkenazy, Piano |
| Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 4 |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
(Royal) Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam Bernard Haitink, Conductor Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer Vladimir Ashkenazy, Piano |
Composer or Director: Sergey Rachmaninov
Label: Decca
Magazine Review Date: 4/1989
Media Format: Vinyl
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 421 590-1DH2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
(Royal) Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam Bernard Haitink, Conductor Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer Vladimir Ashkenazy, Piano |
| Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
(Royal) Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam Bernard Haitink, Conductor Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer Vladimir Ashkenazy, Piano |
| Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3 |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
(Royal) Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam Bernard Haitink, Conductor Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer Vladimir Ashkenazy, Piano |
| Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 4 |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
(Royal) Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam Bernard Haitink, Conductor Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer Vladimir Ashkenazy, Piano |
Author:
To have included the Paganini Rhapsody would have taken the Decca CDs up to around 78 and 80 minutes. It is included on Earl Wild's rival Chandos set, and with a good ten minutes to spare on each disc.
Timings are more than usually pertinent here, I think. The spaciousness of some of Ashkenazy's tempos will not commend itself to all collectors, although it is more or less the norm nowadays, and the resulting absence of the Rhapsody must be reckoned a considerable disincentive. On the other hand, even if you approve in principle of Wild's impetuosity, this becomes too much of a good thing in the Second and Third Concertos, and the dreaded cuts in the latter are an unwelcome factor in the overall time-saving.
MostGramophone readers will by now know what to expect from Ashkenazy and Haitink—a consistently high standard of execution allied to warmth of expression and intelligent grasp of structure, the Concertgebouw acoustic beautifully captured by the Decca engineers and the piano not too forwardly balanced (the CD of the Third Concerto actually has a much clearer piano image than the original LP issue I commented on adversely). However, the performances, possibly excepting the First Concerto, are by and large not improvements on Ashkenazy's previous Decca recordings. In particular there is something predictable and unspontaneous about his rubato, especially in the slow movement of No. 2, which seems to stop at every lamp-post. And impressive though the grandiose paragraphs are, they occasionally sound laboured and over-forceful.
Earl Wild launches into No. 1 with the most electrifying virtuosity; indeed, the whole concerto abounds in daring flashes of inspiration and stupendous technique. The orchestra gets caught up in the sweep of it all too—I would never have believed Horenstein capable of such red-blooded recklessness. The Chandos remastering of the original recordings (which appeared on RCA) is astonishing, almost too good to be true, and if the playing in the remaining concertos lived up to the standard of No. 1 the whole set would be a classic. The Rhapsody is also rather special in its devil-may-care drive, but the other concertos are in varying degrees spoiled by perfunctory phrasing and expression—not so much heart-on-sleeve as eye-on-stopwatch. Technically the solo parts are not always beyond reproach.
So Wild's No. 1 is the one urgent recommendation here—I would want to check with the RCA Byron Janis recording and a couple of others first, but I suspect it may even be unrivalled. For the other concertos I cannot imagine being without Richter in No. 2 (DG) or Michelangeli in No. 4 (EMI). A single recommendation for No. 3 is problematic at the moment, but the composer's own version (RCA) is an essential point of reference, cuts and all.'
Timings are more than usually pertinent here, I think. The spaciousness of some of Ashkenazy's tempos will not commend itself to all collectors, although it is more or less the norm nowadays, and the resulting absence of the Rhapsody must be reckoned a considerable disincentive. On the other hand, even if you approve in principle of Wild's impetuosity, this becomes too much of a good thing in the Second and Third Concertos, and the dreaded cuts in the latter are an unwelcome factor in the overall time-saving.
Most
Earl Wild launches into No. 1 with the most electrifying virtuosity; indeed, the whole concerto abounds in daring flashes of inspiration and stupendous technique. The orchestra gets caught up in the sweep of it all too—I would never have believed Horenstein capable of such red-blooded recklessness. The Chandos remastering of the original recordings (which appeared on RCA) is astonishing, almost too good to be true, and if the playing in the remaining concertos lived up to the standard of No. 1 the whole set would be a classic. The Rhapsody is also rather special in its devil-may-care drive, but the other concertos are in varying degrees spoiled by perfunctory phrasing and expression—not so much heart-on-sleeve as eye-on-stopwatch. Technically the solo parts are not always beyond reproach.
So Wild's No. 1 is the one urgent recommendation here—I would want to check with the RCA Byron Janis recording and a couple of others first, but I suspect it may even be unrivalled. For the other concertos I cannot imagine being without Richter in No. 2 (DG) or Michelangeli in No. 4 (EMI). A single recommendation for No. 3 is problematic at the moment, but the composer's own version (RCA) is an essential point of reference, cuts and all.'
Rachmaninov Complete Piano Concertos
Rachmaninov Complete Piano Concertos
Rachmaninov Complete Piano Concertos
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