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Available on CD. A very successful team!
from Gramophone 1976:
RACHMANINOV. Piano Concertos: No. 1 in F sharp minor, Op. 1; No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18.
Tamas Vasary (piano), London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yuri Ahronovich. DG 2530 717 (x.3 • 59).
It is good to welcome Tamas Vasary back into the recording studio. With his sparkle and infectious virtuosity he is a natural recording artist, and it is surprising that the success of his early records for DG has not prompted many more. Here we find an unusual phenomenon in concerto performances: the conductor insisting on a more extreme espressivo style than the pianist. As a rule it is self-evident that instilling espressivo fluctuations into a band of up to a hundred players is a far more complex proposition than for a solo player simply to indulge his fancy, but here fairly consistently Yuri Ahronovich adopts a degree of rubato that makes Väsary's entries afterwards sound beautifully simple. I put it that way, for Ahronovich's fluctuations are distracting in both concertos. The rallentando in the first subject of the first movement of No. 2 is so extreme one wonders whether the music will actually stop, and the comparable melody in No. 1 is made to sound sweet to the point of sickliness, before Vasary brings genuine tenderness. So too at the start of the second movement of No. 1, and in each of these (and in many other instances) I have no doubt that the collaboration of Ashkenazy and Previn in the direct rival coupling on Decca gives a more authentic view of the composer. By letting the composer speak for himself more, Ashkenazy and Previn finally achieve a wider range of expressiveness.
except that in No. 1 the DG recording is markedly fuller and more forward. It is that sound quality more than any actual contrast of interpretation that makes the result more physically exciting in the last movement, and whatever the excesses of the conductor, the playing of Vasary is a constant delight, full of fantasy and imagination, regularly marked by superb, clean articulation. Those who specially admire him will probably find they can forget the stylistic soupiness in the tuttis. ~E.G.
Don't you believe it! The Vasary is better than the Ashkenazy.