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Rachmaninov Concertos Under the Radar · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

• 0:07
  This is Jed Disler, and welcome to The Piano
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  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  There are so many excellent recorded versions
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  of the four Rachmaninoff concertos and the Paganini
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  Rhapsody that To name just one favorite for each
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  work is not an easy task because we are frankly
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  spoiled for choice. However, I thought that I
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  could talk about recordings that might not immediately
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  come to mind, yet are among the best. best versions
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  of these works that I know on disc. At least
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  I think so. And having re -listened to these
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  recordings over the past few months, I mean,
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  when did I even have the time to listen to them?
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  I thought I could share these favorite choices
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  with you. And I'm calling this episode Rachmaninoff
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  Concerto Recordings Under the Radar. Now, these
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  aren't necessarily the quote -unquote best ones
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  or necessarily favorite ones, although they are
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  in my group of favorite Rachmaninoff concertos,
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  and there's not a weak one in the batch, I can
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  tell you that. So starting with concerto number
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  one, I've always been fascinated with and ultimately
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  very convinced by this recording from the late
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  1970s featuring the pianist Tomas Vasari, and
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  it has the London Symphony Orchestra under the
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  direction of Yuri Aronovich. I really like this
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  recording a lot. First of all, the orchestra
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  playing is very full -bodied, even lush at times.
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  There's a lot of tempo fluctuation, but it sounds
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  very natural and organic, while Hamas Vasari's
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  style has the cutting edge brilliance and the
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  sleekness that you would associate with somebody
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  like maybe Gary Grafman or Eugene Isterman. There's
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  a lot of flexibility as well. And it's different
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  from the more regimented kind of interpretation
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  that you get from, say, Byron Janis and Fritz
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  Reiner. But I am really drawn to this Thomas
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  Vasari recording with the London Symphony of
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  Concerto No. 1. Now for Concerto No. 2, discipline
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  and brilliance and stinging transparency on both
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  pianistic and orchestral levels consistently
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  abound in this mid -1950s recording. with the
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  pianist Julius Katchen and George Schulte conducting
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  the London Symphony Orchestra. They're in this
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  recording too. They were in the concerto number
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  one that I just talked about. And the outer movements,
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  especially in this recording, have tremendous
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  drive and a sense of inner rhythm. It's a very,
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  very satisfying interpretation. Now, at the opposite
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  end of the virtuoso spectrum, There's this very
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  interesting Rachmaninoff third concerto recording
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  that is eccentric in certain ways, but somehow
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  it's always held my attention. And it features
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  the Czech pianist Mirka Okorna and the Brno State
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  Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of
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  Jiri Penkas. This was first released on Superfon.
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  And you can find it as a digital download in
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  different places. I don't know if it was on CD
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  on Superfon. I'm not sure. I have several incarnations
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  of this performance. Anyway, in the first movement,
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  the opening theme goes at a very deliberate pace.
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  But when the orchestra takes up the theme from
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  the piano, then everything just speeds up. And
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  there's a lot of volatile stop -start kind of
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  rubato throughout the performance and very angular
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  phrasing that my late friend and colleague Harris
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  Goldsmith likened to the idea of one playing
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  the Rachmaninoff Third Concerto as if it had
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  been composed by Janáček, which is kind of an
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  interesting observation. And it's not quite so
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  far from the truth. Now, there's not much in
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  the way of powerful momentum and romantic sweep
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  in this recording. And you can hardly say that
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  the interpretation is idiomatic. But there is
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  something to it that fascinates me. And it's
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  unlike any other Rachmaninoff third that I've
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  heard before. And I listen to it every once in
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  a while and definitely check it out. It's certainly
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  different. Now, for the fourth concerto, I am
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  a big fan of the recording with Edil Biret on
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  Noxus with Antoni Witt and the Polish National
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  Radio Symphony Orchestra. This is a terrific
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  recording on many levels. Now, just take the
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  orchestra playing alone and listen to how, at
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  the very beginning of the opening movement, how
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  the conductor takes special care to differentiate
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  the brass and the woodwind repeated notes while
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  not allowing the full -bodied strings to wear
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  their hearts on their sleeves when they take
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  up the piano's opening theme. And Ido Barrett,
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  by the way, she just scampers through that finale,
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  and she matches pianists like Earl Wilde, I think,
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  for playfulness. ebullience, note for note. So
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  this is really a Rachmaninoff fourth concerto
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  to consider. I put it alongside the one with
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  Jascha Horenstein conducting Earl Wilde, and
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  of course the classic Michelangeli recording
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  on EMI, now Warner Classics, or the Rhapsody
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  on a theme of Paganini. It's hard for me to get
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  my reference versions of Earl Wilde or William
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  Capel or even the old Leon Fleischer recording
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  out of my head. I'd even put in Gary Grafman
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  and Leonard Bernstein with the New York Philharmonic.
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  But there is a fairly recent recording that I
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  have to admit was not on my personal radar until
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  not too long ago. And it features the pianist
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  Yevgeny Sudbin. with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra
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  under the direction of Lan Shui. And the tempos
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  are brisk, but not overly driven. And there's
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  wonderfully detailed interplay between the soloist
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  and orchestra in true concertante -like fashion,
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  which you really do need in this work. And there's
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  characterful contrast from variation to variation.
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  But still, everything hangs together with unity
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  of purpose. And the engineering is simply out
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  of this world. So this is definitely a Paganini
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  Rhapsody to have with Yevgeny Sudbin, Lan Shui,
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  and the Singapore Symphony on the Beast label.
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  So there we have it. There are Rachmaninoff Four
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  Concertos and the Paganini Rhapsody in recordings
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  that might be under the radar, at least where
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  I'm concerned or where you're concerned, but
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  definitely check them out if you love these pieces.
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  This is Jed Disler, and you've been listening
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  to The Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide
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  to piano recordings. I look forward to being
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  with you for our next episode. Take good care.