Customer Reviews

Rachmaninov: Morceaux de fantaisie, op. 3 / Morceaux de salon, Op. 5 / Moments musicaux, Op. 16 (The Complete Solo Piano Music, Volume 1)

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As a big fan of Rachmaninov (and an enthusiastic listener of other discs in the Ruth Laredo series of Rachmaninov piano works on Sony) I must sadly report that this disc ranks poorly on many dimensions.

The recording quality of this disc is not good. For a recording made in the 1970s, it sounds like a poorly done recording from two decades earlier. The sound is shallow and very flat.

The poor recording quality only aggravates the playing of the artist, Ruth Laredo, who leaves much to be desired in her playing. Ruth Laredo has offered reliable interpretations of other Rachmaninov piano works in the other discs in the Sony series. Here, she makes few worthy accomplishments.

Finally, what one can most charitably say about these works is that for the most part they only depict how far Rachmaninov progressed afterwards as a composer. These works (with the exception of a couple of the Moments Musicaux, the Famous Prelude, and the Eligie) could be of any obscure late 19th century composer.

If you have a great curiosity to hear these early works then I would direct the listener to the disc made by EMI and Andrei Gavrilov. On that disc you will at least hear the best works on this disc (though not the Prelude, which at any rate one can obtain on any number of other discs), played with more inspiration, at lower cost, and on a far better recording.

The morceaux Fantaisie, Salon and Musicaux, are a very Rich and Personal View of the worls of Sergie Rachmaninov, from the Dark mood that envelopes us in 1st E flat minor piec, the Famous 3 Note Fall in cut #2,a Child like vision in E major remaniscent of Debussy, to the Great & Talented Romp into the Fantastic of piece #4, it all unfolds logically and Laredo is our Story Teller Extrodinaire, and later in cuts #13 and #14 you will experience the Passion , and ever increasing cresendos in the Classic A-B-A form exceptioanlly well developed and Loveling played as only Ruth laredo could bring to the listener.

I purchased this set for a second time having owned it some years ago in its original format. After listening to it again I began to realise why I sold it all those years ago. The reason being that it is not particularly distinguished playing. Don't get me wrong Laredo's technique is not at fault but you can't help thinking that she is somehow going through the motions and not plunging the depths of emotion that these pieces really need. In its day the set offered a good survey of Rachmaninov's solo piano works at a time when there wasn't a lot of choice in this repertoire. However, today it is not so competitive on anything other than price grounds. Unfortunately, the recorded piano sound is not helpful as its often heavy and lifeless. Also I found the pedal noise on these recordings infuriatingly distracting. While I realise that pedal noise is a factor of piano recordings I found it hard to bear on this set.

Ultimately, it's not a bad survey just not a great one and none of the discs would rank anywhere near first choice (at least for me) in this brilliant music. I have Ashkenazy's solo Rachmaninov Decca recordings as well as recital selections by others such as the wonderful Nikolai Demidenko and Dmitri Alexeev. All of these artists convey this music with much more emotional depth than Ruth Laredo. Having been disappointed with this set I have now invested in Howard Shelley's complete Hyperion survey. I can't say I'm disappointed either, as soon as I listened to the Morceaux de fantaisie on the first disc I realised that I'd made the right choice. So to conclude, I can't recommend Laredo even on the grounds of low cost. Even in today's austere economic times it would be best to save your pennies for something more heavenly like Shelley's set.