Now 71, Jorge Bolet has had time to cultivate self-control. In the heat of excitement he neither surges ahead nor goes through his tone. His account of this concerto is commandingly broad and strong, in toto lasting some 44'6'' as against Sgouros's 40'12'' (EMI) and Kocsis's 37'21'' (Philips).
Kocsis's timin gin fact allows him to fit Rachmaninov's Fourth Concerto in G minor on to the disc as well. Sadly, much of the D minor concerto's opening movement really is too quick from this volatile young Hungarian, and he rushes his fences in the central climax of the slow movement as well. But his scintillating fingerwork is breathtaking, especially in the finale, and I also enjoyed the imaginative orchestral contribution and well-ventilated texture of the San Francisco Symphony under Edo de Waart. For someone only just 14 when his recording was made, Sgouros is of course prodigious. But as if intoxicated by his own powers he often forces the piano into the foreground when all ears (including his own) should be on the Berlin Philharmonic under Simonov. In tutti climaxes the sound is all too full and forward, and sometimes clotted too, like a lot of people all trying to talk at once.
So obviously Bolet is the safest bet. That said, I'm bound to admit that I found his playing a little lacking in the immediacy, in the sheer physical exuberance, of his young rivals—and not least in the finale, which emerges too deliberate, at times even dogged. I would have also expected something more vivid from the LSO under Ivan Fischer. The CD sound is generous, as always, though the piano sometimes seems a little cold. All in all, I think the ideal CD Rachmaninov Third has yet to come.'