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In Reply to: RE: Good points - but no two listeners will agree on everything posted by Chris from Lafayette on May 11, 2017 at 10:44:35
I like Rachmaninoff but think of him as a minor master. I really (really) do not understand how his 3d piano concerto has achieved such status as it apparently has. I prefer the 2d as an entire piece, prefer the cello/piano sonata to both, and suspect that his best music is in his songs.
My favourite Rach 3 movement is its first. That movement, for me, is (considerably) most musically performed by its author notwithstanding the technical flaws I have been directed to notice by various. My (so far) 2d choice (above all others) is that of Arkady Volodos who, lamentably, is barely audible among current. (For me, Volodos is similarly great on his meagre Schubert and on his Mompou.)
Should I duck?
Jeremy
Follow Ups:
I love pretty much everything Rachmaninoff composed (songs, sonatas, concertos, symphonies, etc.), and for me, the Third Piano Concerto is the greatest piano concerto ever written. I love its epic sweep and expansive dimensions, even though I feel that those qualities shouldn't necessarily be emphasized in performance. Sure, I like the Second Piano Concerto too - I remember accompanying a high-school kid some years ago, and, during our performance of the second movement, tears just started welling up and flowing down my cheeks - totally unexpectedly, I might add! Very weird - but it does show the power of Rachmaninoff's music over someone who is susceptible to it (like me!).
Regarding, Volodos, I generally love his playing, but I feel that his recording of the Third Concerto is a bit undermined by the multi-microphoned engineering, where the art fails to conceal the art! ;-) I have his Schubert SACD too and I like it a lot. Haven't heard his Mompou album.
Well, Chris, we disagree at least re "greatest piano concerto ever written" for which soubriquet I'd nominate instead Beethoven's 4th or Mozart's K 466. Were I not modest, I'd add "harrumph" to that.
As for the Volodos, age has lessened my hearing acuity; because I now live alone, I rarely turn on my "big system", listening instead mostly at my office desk where I get good sound but not so much so that multi-miking messes bother me as much as they used to (though that may also be a function of craft ebbing). But I can imagine how such would drive you, with your 5-channel set-up, to distraction. On the issue merely of musical performance, there is something magical that Rachmaninoff does with the recurrent theme of the 3d's first move that makes me feel, strongly, "Russian winter". So far, in my experience, only Volodos comes close to duplicating that.
Jeremy
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