Rachmaninov: Concerto No.2/Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini

This is one of the finest performance and recording of these pieces available. Gary Graffman shows his brilliant talent in these interpretations of Rachmaninoff. Far too many think that speed is critical in performing specific passages when in fact patience is required. One may have the skill to play all the notes but lack the talent to perform the music. Graffman performs with nuance and subtlety as well as skill and decision in bringing the souls of these pieces to life.

Highly recommended. (You'll throw your other recordings away after hearing this!) --Rob Smout Listen to samples

Rachmaninoff: Piano Concertos No. 2 & 3

Byron Janis' celebrated recordings of these two concertos have never sounded better than in this new remastering by Mercury's Wilma Cozart Fine. Talk about recordings usually focuses on the artists and composers, and rightly so, but there are some people in the industry whose names you should know, producers and engineers whose work is as artistically excellent as the performers they record. During the late 50s and early 60s the Fines, husband and wife, created a catalog of recordings, which, when all is said and done, is probably title for title the finest in existence. There isn't a single one that isn't worth hearing, and some, like this one, belong in every collection. --David Hurwitz Listen to samples

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1; Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 [Hybrid SACD]

Both the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto #1 and the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #2 are two of my all-time favorite Romantic piano concertos. Van Cliburn's performance is historic making (he was the 1st American to take the Gold Medal in the first Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958). His playing is absolutely brilliant in musicianship, tone, and in capturing the different moods of the piece. This is my favorite performance of this concerto. My second favorite would be that of Martha Argerich's recording in 1972 w/ Charles Dutoit as the conductor.

Equally outstanding is the Rachmaninoff. From the somber and dramatic beginning of the first movement leading to the climactic build-up at the end, Cliburn captures the different moods and dynamics of the work brilliantly. (It's hard to express this in words). The second movement is very touching and the tone in Cliburn's playing is masterful. Van Cliburn's performance rivals that of any other pianist (Artur Rubinstein, Lang Lang, Garrick Ohlsson, etc.)

For other brilliant recordings of the Tchaikovsky piano concerto, I would recommend the following:

Martha Argerich (Deutsch Grammophon) 1971 w/ Charles Dutoit (conductor)
Barry Douglas (RCA Victor Red Seal) w/ Leonard Slatkin (conductor)
Garrick Ohlsson (Hanssler) 1997 (this is also coupled w/ Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #2)

For another outstanding recording of the Rachmaninoff, I would highly recommend
Jeno Jando's recording (1988, Naxos label)
Garrick Ohlsson (1997, Hanssler label)

One great advantage of this CD is its low price and its excellent sound quality in the SACD format. Highly recommended!! --moviemusicbuff Listen to samples

Concerto No.2 In C Minor For Piano And Orchestra

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

During the period between 1890 -1895, Rachmaninoff's career as a composer suffered two major setbacks, the failure of the First Piano Concerto in F-sharp minor followed by the equally emphatic failure of his First Symphony. Convinced that he was without talent and, as a result, close to a complete nervous breakdown, Rachmaninoff enlisted the help of a prominent physician by the name of Dr.Dahl. Through the powers of autosuggestion, Dr. Dahl succeeded in restoring the composer's shattered confidence and the will to compose

The second Concerto for Piano and Orchestra was written in this period of revived self-confidence and appropriately the concerto was dedicated to Dr.Dahl. The second and third movements were composed and performed with great success pior to the completion of the concerto.

The first movement was assed in 1901 and the premier performance of the entire concerto was given on October 27, 1901 with the composer as sololist with the Moscow Philharmonic Society. The concerto was a triumph and assured Rachmaninoff's reputation as a composer throughout the world of music.

RHAPSODY ON A THEME OF PAGANINI, OPUS 43 - RUBINSTEIN'S VERSION

I have loved this recording for over 40 years. I own the original vinyl LP. I was thrilled when this became available on CD. I was afraid that some of the richness and velvety tone would be lost in the transition to CD, but it sounds fine. (Almost as good as vinyl.) This is a superb rendition of the Rhapsody. Rubinstein's interpretation is romantic and masculine; the music lives and breathes. Rubinstein's version of de Falla's "Nights in the Gardens of Spain" is lighter, more elegant and exotic. There might be better versions of the de Falla piece out there, but for me, this version of the "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" has never been surpassed. And as I said, the sound on this CD is faithful to the original LP, and while not quite as full and nuanced as the original, it is still fine enough not to distract me when I listen to the CD. I highly recommend this CD.--R. Rubin Listen to samples

RACHMANINOV: CONCERTO NO.2/RHAPSODY ON A THEME OF PAGANINI

This is one of the finest performance and recording of these pieces available. Gary Graffman shows his brilliant talent in these interpretations of Rachmaninoff. Far too many think that speed is critical in performing specific passages when in fact patience is required. One may have the skill to play all the notes but lack the talent to perform the music. Graffman performs with nuance and subtlety as well as skill and decision in bringing the souls of these pieces to life. Highly recommended. (You'll throw your other recordings away after hearing this!)--Rob Smout

Samples to Listen

RHAPSODY ON A THEME OF PAGANINI, OPUS 43

Sergey Rachmaninov
(1873-1943)



The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, composed in 1934, is one of Rachmaninov’s most popular works. The clear shape of the theme, from Paganini’s vilolin Caprice in A minor, heip Rachmaninov to control procedures which elsewhere had often become rather ramblingly improvisatory. The result is a taut structure in which the variations on the theme can roughly be divided into three sections, as Geoffery Norris and other writers have pointed out variations 1-10 (for the most part quick); 11-18 (predominantly slow); and 19-24 (lively throughout). These sections coincide loosely with the three movements of a concerto. The basic outline of the theme in the first variation precedes the theme itself. Rachmaninov has perceived that it bears a resemblance to the Dies Irae, which dominates variations 7-10 and plays an important role later as well. The florid variation 11, with its cadenza-like passages, effects a modulation from the key hitherto largely employed. A minor to D minor for the next two variations, then to F major and, in variation 18 (the culmination of the middle section), to D flat major for one of the most delectably lyrical of all Rachmaninov’s melodies, ingeniously based on a free inversion of Paganini’s theme. From variation 19 (again in A minor) the rhythmic impetus and tempo gradually increase until the final, twenty-fourth variation, in which the Dies Irae is portentously restated in the course of a dramatic peroration, capped by a whimsically soft snippet of the theme.

It is because this series of variations is constructed with such exquisite care, and encapsulates such a wide variety of moods and of moods and of melodies cleverly derived from Paganini’s original, that it is generally considered to be Rachmaninov’s greatest concerted work. And it is no mean feat to have matched the achievement of earlier composers who wrote variations on the same theme, most notably Brahms.

Rachmaninoff: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3

Byron Janis' celebrated recordings of these two concertos have never sounded better than in this new remastering by Mercury's Wilma Cozart Fine. Talk about recordings usually focuses on the artists and composers, and rightly so, but there are some people in the industry whose names you should know, producers and engineers whose work is as artistically excellent as the performers they record. During the late 50s and early 60s the Fines, husband and wife, created a catalog of recordings, which, when all is said and done, is probably title for title the finest in existence. There isn't a single one that isn't worth hearing, and some, like this one, belong in every collection. --David Hurwitz Listen to Samples.

Piano Concerto No.2 In C Minor, Op.18

Serge Rachmaninoff (1873 – 1943)

Moderato
Adagio sostenuto
Allegro scherzando

The year of the Piano Concerto No.2 was 1900, and its first performance took place on October 14, 1901 with the Moscow Philharmonic. The composer played the piano part in this premier performance. Few of Rachmaninoff’s works are so richly filled with intoxicating melodic ideas; few seem to have arisen in such a soaring flight of inspiration. From the majestic opening of the first movement with its succession of chords pronounced by the solo piano in increasing sonority from pianissimo to fortissimo, through the eloquent melody for oboes and violas in the third movement (one of the most stirring lyric pages in modern concerto literature), the concerto teems with exciting, moving, passionate, tender ideas, pouring forth inexhaustibly. The second movement, Adagio sostenuto, is a particularly poetic page, somewhat sentimental, somewhat nostalgic, but always deeply felt and sensitively expressed.

Rachmaninoff dedicated the concerto to Dr.Dahl whose treatment of Rachmaninoff’s state of despair and morbidity following the failure of his First Symphony and First Piano Concerto enable the composer to compose again with new vitality and freshness. The result was his Piano Concerto No.2, in many respects the best loved of all his larger works, and one of the most inspired. When his vein of melody was tapped, it gushed in a warm stream of that Russian lyricism which can turn the stone heart to water. Rachmaninoff never sought to expound doctrines other than the doctrine of beauty, and that is why his music is always “singing”. He was a composer with soul in his music – emotional, hypersensitive, moody, at alternate moments brooding.