# Rachmaninov



## Hanon (Mar 21, 2007)

Hi,

This is my first post here so please be 'nice' to me, lol. 

Are there any Rachmaninov 'nuts' here? I like his piano concerti in particular the third. I have around 30 renditions. Who would you 'rate' as being a good interpreter of this music?

I enjoy the Arcadi Volodos rendition very much. I also enjoy Slav' Richter playing the second not to mention Michaelangeli playing the forth.

I am rather a classical music nut and hope to find similar people here?

Very best wishes to you all,

Mike Hanon


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

Hello Mike, and welcome to Talk Classical 

Although I like Rachmaninoff too, I only have one recording: The 3 Symphonies performed by Rotterdam Phil under the baton of Edo de Waart, recorded in 1976 

I think you will find other _Rach Nuts_ in this forum ...  .

Kh


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## Guest (Mar 21, 2007)

Hello Hanon

Yes, having overdosed on listening to the second concerto when it was just becoming more popular in my younger days (70s- 80s) I have graduated to the third in recent years and sometimes spend days trying to get that powerful opening piano phrase out of my head. Why? Well I'm a firm believer in rationing what I listen to so it won't get too familiar. In fact I think I will generate my first post on that theme. 

However I have never been able to understand those who have more than one recording of a piece, but 30???
I guess you must be a serious musician who can sort out the nuances of various interpretations better than I.


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## Hanon (Mar 21, 2007)

Hi dch222,

Thank you for your reply. Rachmaninov was the first classical music I liked as a child. I recall well the days when my parents would play classical music and I would run out of the house to get away from it! How little did I realise that the time would soon come whn I loved music as much as they did.
30 Copies of one piece must sound odd, I agree! Lol.
I have been collecting the third and second for years and enjoy the differences between them all. Did you know that there is as much as 12 minutes difference between the slowest rendition and the quickest? I find that interesting. Each rendition is different and though the score is the same it realy does test the virtuoso and orchestra to the full.

I also enjoy the less popular first and fourth.

If you can find a copy of Arcadi Volodos playing the third then you should. Volodos is the only pianist I have heard that can control and tame that piece. I guess Horowitz comes close also?

Nice to chat with you, Best wishes, Mike


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## Hanon (Mar 21, 2007)

Hi Krummhorn,

Thanks for the reply. I also enjoy the symphonies, I dont have the same renditions as yourself though. Nice to chat with you.
As a child it was the first that was my 'introduction' to the classics. I enjoyed the trupet solo that used to introduce the Panorama TV programme. I played just that part hours on end then let it run on and enjoyed that then played it from the beginning and I was hooked!

Best wishes,

Mike


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## Guest (Mar 21, 2007)

> I enjoyed the trupet solo


Fabulous name for an instrument


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## Hanon (Mar 21, 2007)

Hiya dch222,

I guess I missed out the Mmmmmmmmmmm! lol.

All the best, Mike


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## Manuel (Feb 1, 2007)

> I have been collecting the third and second for years and enjoy the differences between them all. Did you know that there is as much as 12 minutes difference between the slowest rendition and the quickest?


My Sokolov (recorded live) takes 46:14; and Rachmaninov's own in the 30s runs for 33 minutes. So the difference can be considered as 13 minutes. If I had the chance to hear Pogorelich on the Rach3, i think we could extend this span to perhaps 23 minutes. 

Have you ever heard Pogorelich's fortysome minutes Rach 2nd? 

The difference in the 3rd comes not only from tempo selections, but also from cuts and _ossias_.

On the Paganini Rhapsody my votes go entirely for Wild/Horenstein. You will find no better version than that.

Of course his Elegiac trios should not be forgotten.


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## toughcritic (Jan 22, 2007)

I agree that you have to graduate from second to third. I also, in my younger days, hehe, enjoyed 2nd so much, still do. Of course, third is a whole different story. It really is the monument. I don't think I would have been able to enjoy Pogorelich interpretation. Gosh! Is there such record anyway? I am glad I don't own it. heee.


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## cato (Dec 2, 2006)

Yes, I am a "Rachmaninov Nut". 

In fact, I pretty much love all Russian composers and their music. 

As far as the 2nd and 3rd piano concertos go, I have heard a lot of different versions, but my favorites so far, are the versions with *Jean-Yves Thibaudet*, and *The Cleveland Orchestra, with Vladimir Ashkenazy.* 

Now, I have to confess, that I am also a HUGE FAN of the Cleveland Orchestra, going back to the old days with George Szell. In fact, when these recordings were made, I went to Severance Hall in Cleveland, and got to meet Ashkenazy and Thibaudent in person in "The Green Room", after a proformance of the 2nd piano concerto. 

By the way, here is how I was introduced to Rachmaninov's music.

I was watching the 1965 movie *"Doctor Zhivago*", when, in a parlor sceen, this guy was playing a beautiful piano piece, and the lady of the house turns to her guest and say's, "This is pure geniuse!"

And her guest quips, "Really? I thought it was Rachmaninov." 

Of course, at this point I was hooked on this beautiful music! But the movie end credits did not tell WHICH piano work this was: all I knew was that they said that it was Rachmaninov.

So, it took me a long time to track this work down, but I eventualy found it on a *Van Cliburn *compilation CD. It's called, *"My Favorite Rachmaninoff".*

The work is titled, *"Prelude in G Minor, OP. 23 No.5"*

And it's on track #7 on the CD, running at 4:03 minutes.

Check it out, it is a beautiful work.


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## amirjsi (Apr 11, 2007)

Oh, the marvelous second Piano Concerto. I especially love the second movement, so rich and melodic; quite warm and mysterious, like a like a lake in the middle of the forest viewed under a full moon. 

I have also come across his Symphonic Dances; they are certainly something to listen to. I cannot describe their character right now (it's been a while since I heard them) but definitely something to look for. I have a recording of them by john Eliot Gardiner on DG.


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## Manuel (Feb 1, 2007)

> I cannot describe their character right now


Let me try... *Rythmic*.


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## cato (Dec 2, 2006)

amirjsi..... I love the way you decribe the 2nd piano concerto!  

Is it not amazing, that the same piece of music, can produce the same mental pictures in different people, on different sides of the planet, many years removed from the Composer himself?

That is excatly what I see in my mind's eye!  

And Manuel is right, I would decribe the symphonic dances as.... well.... "rythmic."  

By the way, I thought John Eliot Gardiner only did "period music".  

What's this about a Rachmaninov CD on DG ?????


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## Giovannimusica (Mar 30, 2007)

I am a *Rach* nut five ways from Sunday but also a born and bred JSBach fanatic and my organ and piano mentors stressed JSBach before anything else. Then one morning I heard on the radio the C sharp minor prelude and the rest is history. Bach and Rachmaninoff are my mainstays. If you learn Rach's preludes and etudes you can play anything out there. His Symphony #2 and the piano cto. #3 are quite the crown jewels of his oeuvre.

*Rach 'n Bach*    

Giovanni


p.s. Ashkenazy was the standard during my formative years. Arkady Volodos certainly is quite the piano phenom and I find not a jot to quibble about in regards to his playing or musicianship.


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