One does not usually start these reviews with a critique of the booklet but I must make an exception. Written by the pianist himself, it gives the (detailed) story behind each of the three works, as you would expect, but also offers an impassioned and enthusiastic apologia for the comparatively neglected First and Fourth Concertos, and provides timecodes for many of the salient moments in each movement. To have such a thoughtful, personal and congenial essay from the soloist is rare indeed. I cannot, in short, imagine a better written introduction to these three masterpieces for the newcomer or experienced pro. I must add that Naxos helpfully gives different tracks for each of the Rhapsody’s 26 sections (it isn’t always the case).

The performances and recording are of the same standard. Throughout this superb disc, Giltburg is a joy to hear, lightly pedalled, consistently on the qui vive, weaving and darting, with a delicious leggiero touch and crystal-clear articulation. When Rachmaninov asks for staccatissimo (as, for example, in the last movement of the F sharp minor First Concerto) or vivo scherzando (in the first movement of No 1 and the sparkling solo Var 15 of the Rhapsody) Giltburg responds with alacrity. The Rhapsody must be one of the wittiest accounts on disc. Occasionally, the forwardly placed Fazioli means that a few passing details are obscured: in the Rhapsody I missed the cheeky little first violin quips of the main theme in Var 7, and the campanella’s subtle ‘Dies irae’ quotes in Var 10. But these are hardly dealbreakers.

What depth of tone he brings to passages such as the cadenza of No 1, yet even Giltburg cannot quite muster the same anguish and desperation that Malcolm Binns brought to it in 1968 on World Record Club (3/68 – when will this be reissued?). As for the central movement of the Fourth Concerto (heard in its final 1941 version, incidentally, which the pianist argues persuasively to be the best and most effective), in Giltburg’s hands no longer is it ‘variations on Three Blind Mice’ but a profound contemplation on the first subject of Schumann’s Piano Concerto.

With Vassily Sinaisky rousing the Brussels Philharmonic to play at the top of their game (there is some lovely woodwind-playing along the way), these are among the finest accounts of these works alongside Wild, Shelley, Hough and of course the composer himself.<