Five greatest Rachmaninov recordings

[vandermolen]

Slightly different slant:

Piano Concerto 3:(Ashkenazy/Fistoulari) Decca
The Bells: Svetlanov, Melodiya/Regis etc
Symphony 2: Ashkenazy Decca
Symphony 1, Litton,Virgin
Isle of the Dead: Polyansky, Chandos

[Holden]

Richter Etudes Tableau

Richter Preludes

Michelangeli PC 4

Gilels/Cluytens PC 3

Richter PC 2

Nobody beats Richter in the solo piano works IMO.

[North Star]

https://www.youtube.com/v/pBx-tr1FDvY       https://www.youtube.com/v/2uqZhnqHMAg    https://www.youtube.com/v/5x_mxkiVFfM
https://www.youtube.com/v/xpxPnucieJU      https://www.youtube.com/v/KL5aiUKPt3Q   

[vandermolen]

Glad that we all agree on the greatest recordings hahaha. Not one overlap so far. Of course we should have his piano music and his own recordings. Just listening to PC No. 2 courtesy of North Star which is terrific despite the sonic limitations. I remember picking up an LP of him conducting Symphony No.3 when I was in the USSR in 1985.

[Madiel]

Ashkenazy, Etudes-Tableaux op.39

Ashkenazy and Previn, 2-piano version of the Symphonic Dances.

Those two things make up an absolutely stunning disc within the Decca box set of Ashkenazy's recordings. I mean, the whole box is good, but then you get that last disc and to me it's mind-blowing.

[North Star]

These two deserve a mention as well

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[Karl Henning]

Isle of the Dead: Polyansky, Chandos

This is mighty tasty, isn't it?

[vandermolen]

This is mighty tasty, isn't it?

Oh yes Karl. Glad you like it too. It is an interesting programme (program  ) too.

[TheGSMoeller]

Only two from me...

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[jochanaan]

Isle of the Dead.  Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony.
Symphony #2.  Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra, 1959.  (The later RCA recording of the complete #2 isn't nearly as good.)

[jochanaan]

...
https://www.youtube.com/v/xpxPnucieJU

I did not know this recording existed!  My only quibble is that I wish Rachmaninoff would have recorded it without the cuts.  Now, composers can do what they want with their own music!  But in this case, I prefer the original with its long buildup to the cathartic climax.  Still, there is the sense of musical architecture that Rachmaninoff the performing musician had more than almost any other, and the orchestra is just wonderful.  (I'm guessing Philadelphia, his favorite orchestra.)

[Karl Henning]

I wonder if, thanks to the trauma of the First Symphony disaster, Rakhmaninov was ever afterward rather vulnerable to conductors who pressed him to make cuts.

[San Antone]

I remember being completely taken by Richter's recording of the 2nd PC after it was featured in the film Brief Encounter.  Another Rach fave is the recording of the Preludes by Vladimir Ashkenazy.

[mc ukrneal]

My three choices:
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[asin]B0000041YX[/asin] (though I have a different cover)

[vandermolen]

I especially like the Ashkenazy disc above - don't know the others but very interesting choices.

[Wakefield]

It's probably just a personal superstition because I knew these recordings when I was a teenager deeply in love with Rachmaninov's music; but still today the four piano concerti and the "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini", performed by Orozco/Waart/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, are five of my very favourite recordings of Rachmaninov's music.



http://www.amazon.com/Rachmaninoff-Complete-Works-Piano-Orchestra/dp/B000004167/ref=tmm_acd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1438261318&sr=8-2