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In Reply to: RE: As for the best ... posted by Ivan303 on March 06, 2017 at 18:04:24
Correct. Not sure how often he conducted the Royal Concertgebouw, but that was his choice as the top orchestra in Europe. And IMO, Ashkenazy's recording of the first with the RCO is very good.Ashkenazy was long the president of the Rachmaninoff Society, which has now changed its internet presence to the Rachmaninoff Network.
Of course, for the Philadelphia, I prefer the LP.
"Life without music is a mistake" (Nietzsche)
Edits: 03/06/17 03/06/17Follow Ups:
He seems to be afraid of losing himself in the music. 40 years of following his career here, so feel free to disagree, but don't tell me I haven't done my homework. : )
For me, the trajectory of Ashkenazy's career has been a long, slow descent towards mediocrity. You listen to those three Etudes-tableaux which were fillers on his early Decca/London Rachmaninoff Second album (the one with Kondrashin conducting) and compare them with his remake (of the complete Etudes-tableaux) and it's not hard to miss: as the Brits say, standards are not being maintained!
Yes, and that's why I usually prefer Russian orchestras playing Russian music -- because so often it just comes to life better with that "pedal to the metal" kind of playing. Whether it is Tchaikovsky, Myaskovsky, Lyatoshinsky, Lyapunov, whatever.
But ya know, the tidy-pants criticism can be just as frequently leveled at most Western conductors as well. When did we hear Haitink, Maazel, Giulini, HvK, etc go bonkers? And conversely, isn't that exactly what Bernstein got criticized for? Of course, none of those guys were especially known for their Russian chops. But I have yet to hear any Brits do a bang up job with any of the Rachmaninoff symphonies. Studied, yes, monumental, yes, but to me, lacking the pathos. (Yes, I know some people love Previn, but I don't get it.)
Ashkenazy is not as exciting as Ormandy in the 1st, but at least he's not somnolent. Most recordings of the 1st are doomed within one minute. Chris seems to like the Kocsis recording. I'm trying to like it. Not there yet.
"Life without music is a mistake" (Nietzsche)
,
Before he became VON KARAJAN!
To be fair, you're right: I listened to Rach playing his own piano concertos on RCA and IMHO he's startlingly expedient and cool, so Ormandy is interpreting as asked.
No one does Russians like the Russians, but other performances can excite and enlighten as well.
I should have said that I appreciate your giving of your time and attention to the Kocsis recording (which I do!).
The Ormandy Philly is good enough that I bought it.
Paid WAY too much for a used CD, but as I said, I mostly steam and buy the music I really like.
I will likely rip the CD and play it back on my main system just to see if there much difference in ripped CD and streaming.
Most of the time, with regular CDs, there is not.
SACD, Hi Rez downloads, no comparison of course but...
CD layer of an SACD streamed at 16/44.1 usually sounds pretty good.
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