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Alexis Weissenberg's Rockin' Rachmaninov Third Concerto · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  Welcome everyone. My name is Jed Distler and you are listening to the Piano Maven,
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  your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings. I've recently re-listened to
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  a recording of Rachmaninoff's third piano concerto that used to always hold
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  my attention and I still think it's a very compelling and individual
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  interpretation. It was recorded in 1968 and it features the pianist Alexis
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  Weissenberg with the Chicago Symphony under the direction of Georges Pratt.
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  Let's talk about the orchestra first. They are perfectly balanced in every
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  section with especially strong brass and the woodwinds are balanced forward and
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  every first desk soloist is absolutely wonderful. Themes that are stated either
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  in the sections or by the soloists are always superbly articulated. I would
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  guess that the oboe soloist at the start of the second movement is raised still.
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  It's played just gorgeously. Anyway, this was the Chicago Symphony in the era of
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  Jean Martinon's music directorship and they had not lost one iota of the
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  virtuosity and ensemble sophistication that made this orchestra famous under
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  Fritz Reiner's music directorship in the 50s and early 60s. Alexis Weissenberg's
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  approach to the Rachmaninoff third falls in the Vladimir Horowitz tradition and
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  that his sonority is essentially lean and gaunt and quite scintillating. He cuts
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  through the thick textures kind of like Roto-Rooter going through a clogged
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  drain and while there is tremendous drive and unrelenting energy to
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  Weissenberg's pianism and a real edge to how he handles the climaxes, there are
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  also many moments where he will stretch a theme almost to its breaking point yet
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  somehow the music doesn't stop dead in its tracks. He does not quite have
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  Horowitz's singing tone but his stabbing accents and firm grasp of chords flying
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  in all directions I think more than compensate. I've always found in Alexis
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  Weissenberg's interpretations of almost all repertoire a kind of curious
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  synthesis of both violence and tenderness and that especially applies to his
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  Rachmaninoff third and unlike many recordings of this concerto from the
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  50s and 60s that incorporated cuts, Weissenberg presents the work complete.
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  The notion of cuts originally came from the composer himself and he sanctioned
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  certain cuts and indeed Vladimir Horowitz interpolated cuts in his first
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  two commercial recordings of the concerto. Earl Wild took cuts and so did
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  Byron Janis and Vitold Makusinski, many other pianists. Anyway if I had to limit
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  myself to just one Rachmaninoff third I'm not sure I would choose the
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  Weissenberg-Prater Chicago recording as my absolute first choice. Maybe I would
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  have in 1968 but there have been so many great ones ever since. I'm thinking of
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  Zoltan Kosciusz and Martha Argerich and Stephen Hough but I definitely put this
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  1968 recording in my top 10 list of Rachmaninoff third concerto recordings
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  to consider and to recommend. This is Jed Disler and you've been listening to the
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  Piano Maven podcast. Thank you for tuning in and happy listening.