Nor did this one (record the 3rd), but this second is also very special: the live Warsaw performance by Richter / Wislocki / Warsaw Philharmonic... give the scherzando in this one a go! Regards
The Greatest Rachmaninoff 3rd of all time?
- Thread starter marty
- Start date
Thanks. Yes. Rachmaninoff. I bought the complete set of his own recordings, but the recording quality isn't good enough for me to tolerate unfortunately. I realised that before the mid 1950s recording quality wasn't/isn't up to the standards that allows full appreciation.
I have the Ashkenazy/ Previn recordings but I tend to listen to the Wilde/Horowitz version.
I will seek out those you've suggested and give them a listen.
As an aside, the critics of Rachmaninoff's day belittled him to the extent that he entered a 10 year depression, apparently. Critics!
Critics may criticise, but it's still Rach we remember and revere.
I, for one, do not recall the name of any critic...
People say failed musicians become music critics. This might be a bit cruel, but there is a certain element of truth in it. Another Rach piece I love is the Symphony no. 2. Previn's EMI recording is superb. Do give Ashkenazy's earlier Rach 3 a listen. It is a Kenneth Wilkinson recording and is up to his usual high standards.
I think I agree with you. However, my identical twin brother and I, we're both very attentive music listeners, and both musicians. We were talking about the 'critics', and the negative effect they had on Rachmaninoff. I believe they had stereotyped him as a pianist. How could any pianist have the affrontery to believe himself capapable of composing. How dare he. The upstart. We'll show him! Could something like this have been behind the attitude of these critics?
The trouble is with the press in general, is, in my view, they will happily rip into anyone, regardless of the negative impact their writings might have on someone. They seem to care not a jot about the harm they can and do cause.
Rant over.
I have the Ashkenazy /Previn version of the complete concertos. I'll give it another listen.
Changing the subject. Another favourite of ours is Lili Kraus's renditions of the complete Mozart Piano Concertos. Vienna Festival Orchestra, Stephen Simon conducting, Columbia Records, 1964, 1965.
It took us over a year to find the boxed set. It was being sold by someone in Romania on eBay for £127. We were delighted to get hold of that.
Has anyone here listened to the available recordings of the great man himself, Sergei Rachmaninoff playing any of his Concertos?
If so what's your opinion?
My personal opinion so far, is that the sound quality of recorded music before probably the mid-fifties doesn't allow for justice to be done so to speak, which is for me, a pity.
If so what's your opinion?
My personal opinion so far, is that the sound quality of recorded music before probably the mid-fifties doesn't allow for justice to be done so to speak, which is for me, a pity.
Me neither. I personally, do not believe that I have any reason to remember them. Any of them.
After all the critics of the day tried to tear Beethoven apart too.
Beethoven was well ahead of his time. His last string quartets left people scratching their heads. The people who attacked him were small minds that history soon forgets.
I agree. Beethoven went from being misundetstood and criticized by the so called experts of his time, to the legendary reputation he now has, as possibly the greatest composer of all time.
It's interesting to note that Mozart had become relatively obscure until the mid 1950s. I'm certain, that the situation regarding Mozart and others coincides with the history of recorded music and its links to the broadcasting industry.
Mozart as an example became hugely popular with the public when it became commonplace for the public to hear his music.
I guess that added to this, we have to give a massive thankyou to those Orchestras and Conductors who had the vision to recognise, the extroadinary talent of Mozart.
It's interesting to note that Mozart had become relatively obscure until the mid 1950s. I'm certain, that the situation regarding Mozart and others coincides with the history of recorded music and its links to the broadcasting industry.
Mozart as an example became hugely popular with the public when it became commonplace for the public to hear his music.
I guess that added to this, we have to give a massive thankyou to those Orchestras and Conductors who had the vision to recognise, the extroadinary talent of Mozart.
To those of you who enjoyed Yunchan Lim’s Rach 3, I would urge you to listen to his live recording at the Van Cliburn Competition of Liszt’s Transcendental etudes. You can hear it via Qobuz or buy the CD…or of course suffer through it on Youtube…
While the recorded piano sound by Steinway and Sons is a bit clattery, as some have noticed, the performance is prodigious and one for the ages….would be a nice test run for the Taiko Olympus when it finally appears…
While the recorded piano sound by Steinway and Sons is a bit clattery, as some have noticed, the performance is prodigious and one for the ages….would be a nice test run for the Taiko Olympus when it finally appears…
Jed Distler from Classics Today looooooves this and I can understand why… it’s a phenomenal and mesmerising performance. Yunchan Lim is proving himself a meteoric firebrand… and +1 yes, long may he play.
The Best Liszt Transcendental Etudes Ever
Jed Distler
Artistic Quality:
- 10
- 9
Lim’s effortless virtuosity and total immersion into Liszt’s idiom indeed define transcendental. His shapely and perfectly proportioned Preludio sets the stage for numerous felicities to come, such as the pianist’s playful command of the Second Etude’s unwieldy leaps and broken double notes. When hearing Paysage live, I initially thought Lim’s rubato to be a bit contrived, but now the tempo manipulations seem all of a piece. His suave and sweeping dispatch of Mazeppa’s thorny textures conveys minimum bluster and maximum nobility.
For all of the awesome speed and offhanded lightness in Feux follet’s double notes, Lim hardly neglects the left hand in a performance to place alongside those of Sviatoslav Richter and Minoru Nojima. The power of Vision’s arpeggios is akin to nondestructive tidal waves, while Lim’s pliable wrist action in Wild Jagd’s interlocking octaves make George Cziffra sound arthritic by comparison.
Most young pianists ramble through Ricordanza, but Lim’s long-lined phrasing has direction aplenty, with no dead spots. The same goes for Harmonies du soir. No. 10’s cascading runs and agitato tunes are impeccably aligned, while the pianist’s variety of voicings and tonal shadings give depth and character to Chasse-neige’s potentially clattery tremolos.
A little audience rustle is a small price to pay for what must be the best live integral performance of the Transcendental Etudes ever preserved in sound. Let’s hope that Lim will sustain this level of artistic and pianistic brilliance over the course a long and fulfilling career.
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I prefer the Etudes to the Rach. 3rd. My favorite is Cziffra 1955 (on LP and the earlier CD release, new release was horribly remastered, forward, bright, lacking in bass). I have as many Etude recordings as Rach 3 (with over 12,000 piano LPs/CDs/78s, I limit myself but Rach 3rds are more often recorded). I'll hear Yunchan's next.
No. 5 Feux follets is my favorite and his rendition is exquisite. Besides Richter and Nojima, let's not forget 1955 Cziffra which had that something extra as well. I have multiple complete versions of the etudes. Arrau's is slower but thoughtful. Lazar Berman's is rather unique.Jed Distler from Classics Today looooooves this and I can understand why… it’s a phenomenal and mesmerising performance. Yunchan Lim is proving himself a meteoric firebrand… and +1 yes, long may he play.
The Best Liszt Transcendental Etudes Ever
Jed Distler
Artistic Quality:
Sound Quality:
- 10
The announcement that 18-year-old Yunchan Lim planned to devote his entire Van Cliburn International Competition semi-final recital to all twelve Liszt Transcendental Etudes created a buzz throughout the international piano community. Could this youngest of the 2022 contenders bring off such an audacious test of technical wherewithal, musicianship, and stamina? As it happened, Lim made it to the semi-finals, and delivered the goods big time. He went on to win the Gold Medal, following a performance of the Rachmaninov Third concerto that was the talk of the town.
- 9
Lim’s effortless virtuosity and total immersion into Liszt’s idiom indeed define transcendental. His shapely and perfectly proportioned Preludio sets the stage for numerous felicities to come, such as the pianist’s playful command of the Second Etude’s unwieldy leaps and broken double notes. When hearing Paysage live, I initially thought Lim’s rubato to be a bit contrived, but now the tempo manipulations seem all of a piece. His suave and sweeping dispatch of Mazeppa’s thorny textures conveys minimum bluster and maximum nobility.
For all of the awesome speed and offhanded lightness in Feux follet’s double notes, Lim hardly neglects the left hand in a performance to place alongside those of Sviatoslav Richter and Minoru Nojima. The power of Vision’s arpeggios is akin to nondestructive tidal waves, while Lim’s pliable wrist action in Wild Jagd’s interlocking octaves make George Cziffra sound arthritic by comparison.
Most young pianists ramble through Ricordanza, but Lim’s long-lined phrasing has direction aplenty, with no dead spots. The same goes for Harmonies du soir. No. 10’s cascading runs and agitato tunes are impeccably aligned, while the pianist’s variety of voicings and tonal shadings give depth and character to Chasse-neige’s potentially clattery tremolos.
A little audience rustle is a small price to pay for what must be the best live integral performance of the Transcendental Etudes ever preserved in sound. Let’s hope that Lim will sustain this level of artistic and pianistic brilliance over the course a long and fulfilling career.
I love piano etudes, from Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Moscheles and a few others.
I started these first back with Nojima and later fell for both Arrau and what Richter recorded of Liszt’s Etudes… very happy to now add Yunchan Lim to my list of benchmarks in this. I find that they have the virtuosity and poetry and whole form completely that when I play them time just disappears. Although that could also be a function of getting older
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Agree with several of the Rachmaninoff PC recommendations here, not to mention recordings made by the great Kenneth E. Wilkinson, and would like to add one of the finest that has so far not been mentioned in this thread, No. 2 with Julius Katchen, Georg Solti and the LSO on Decca.
Greetings from Switzerland, David.
Greetings from Switzerland, David.
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I was happy to recently purchase the complete Katchen Decca recordings. He was exciting and I must hear his version now. As to getting old, I feel young at 68 with perfect hearing. I first encountered No.2 Concerto at 5 years old and it made a great impression. Then on to Pennario, Kapell and now Katchen, all of the same period of great American pianists. I have probably 3 dozen No.2 recordings. Let's hear Yun do that one too. I especially enjoy No.2 in the 1946 Rubinstein & Golschmann (more dramatic flair than Reiner 1956).
Nice! If you have the complete Decca recordings, be sure to listen to Katchen's recordings of the Prokofiev, Bartók and Ravel PCs - they all rank among the finest.
Greetings from Switzerland, David.
His last piano sonata No. 32 has elements of jazz/boogie-woogie although not a precursor, definitely unique for the 19th century. I've heard it several times live, once with Arrau and it was breathtaking.
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