Customer Reviews

Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3 [Hybrid SACD]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have only listened to the 2-channel SACD track (I've got a very good stereo setup), but the quality is honestly phenominal. The music is so incredibly fluid - the piano, percussion and brass are all almost startling and possess wonderful imaging. The clarity and instrument separation are amazing.. truly a top quality SACD recording. If you like Rachmaninov's music, you will love this recording, and if you have an especially high-end audio set-up, this could easily be one of your reference discs. I also found the performance itself extremely good. If conveys lots of emotion and made the listening experience just wonderful.

Mr. Hall's comments on this item correctly list the UPC number for the Rachmaninov Piano Concertos SACD which is pictured at the top of this page, but then goes on to make reference to an altogether different CD. Be assured that this is, indeed, Piano Concertos 2 & 3 with Konstantin Scherbakov performing, and Dmity Yablonsky conducting the Russian State Symphony Orchestra.

Except for the expert remastering of the composer's own recordings, Naxos has been repeatedly trying to get it right with the Rachmaninoff concertos. The Jeno Jando disc with the second concerto and the rhapsody was nicely played; but the orchestra wasn't quite as good as the pianist. Then Bernd Glemser had a go. Again, good performances, but rather glib, lacking something in the soul department.

Now, we can listen to Konstantin Scherbakov, accompanied by the Russian State Symphony Orchestra (the modern incarnation of the old USSR symphony), conducted by Dimitri Yablonsky. Mr. Scherbakov arrives at this point, having established very strong pianistic credentials by way of his stellar performances of the Beethoven Diabelli Variations, the Shostakovich Preludes, all set down for Naxos in regular 16-bit PCM red book stereo sound.

As a winner of the first-ever Rachmaninoff competition, you might suspect that Mr. Scherbakov would know a thing or two about how to present this music. He does, indeed. Right off, he commands the balances needed to make Rachmaninoff more than background or elevator music. Pacing is key,and not easily done in Rachmaninoff. Not to fast, not too slow; able to rise and fall with the larger phrasings of the music without devolving into the kind of taffy-pull that leaves the music in gooey strings, laying around all over the room table tops, limp.

Technically, though neither of these two concertos is particularly easy to play, Scherbakov solves or surmounts every difficulty. First off, he has the figurations in hand. Rachmaninoff is always requiring the pianist to play very busy patterns, while also making you work to distinguish the melody or rhythmic foreground from the rest of the pattern that serves as background, and sometimes even as motoric background and lyric counterpoint-commentary. This is not physically impossible, but lots of virtuosos are either working too hard to get it all done, or play it all like a whiz kid who doesn't care to know the musical foreground from background.

The orchestra keeps up with the pianist very well. The multichannel high resolution sound allows you to hear everything, without the glare or compression that subtly tints the reproduction in regular CD at 16 bits. Again, there are lots of momentary passages, at both slow and fast tempos,where Rachmaninoff writes in orchestra duets from somebody in the band who chimes in with whatever the piano is playing. These cannot be indulged, and must be tricky to get right within the larger flux of the passing moments. Often the soloist playing something along with the piano concerto star is a member of the woodwinds. It is rather nice to hear how well the orchestra acquits itself in these passages, without calling undue attention to the interplay in a way that interrupts the music.

If this release is any evidence, and I do believe it is, then Naxos has finally gotten it right in their search for team Rachmaninoff. One hopes this team will finish up a complete Rachmaninov concerto-rhapsody cycle? The fact that all this success is available in high resolution sound is great, too. Highly, highly recommended, even if you have other performances you like. Five stars, each, for Scherbakov, for the orchestra, and the conductor. I believe that makes fifteen stars, total.

INQUIRE BEFORE PURCHASING!!!

The UPC for this album has been crossed linked with another album which was published prior to Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3 [Hybrid SACD]

Both CDs carry the same UPC, which is very possible that the UPC has been recycled.

Regardless, for your's and sanity's sake... Purchase with caution, there is a 50/50 chance you could end up with either title. Because most marketplace sellers/vendors upload their inventory by using UPC, thereby never knowing the discrepency... Until...

Here is the alternate info for this [UPC: 747313101320] is as follows:

[Album] Mozart: Eine Kliene Nachtmusik / Three Salsburg Symphonies
Catalog No.: 18013
Label: Lydian

Conductor: Eduard Fischer
Orchestra: Accademia Ziliniana

Track Listing:

Eine Kliene Nacchtmusik, K. 525
1. Allegro [8:00]
2. Romanze [5:50]
3. Menuetto [2:47]
4. Rondo: Allegro [2:57]

Salzburg Symphony No. 1, K. 136
5. Allegro [6:08]
6. Andante [5:16]
7. Presto [3:38]

Salzburg Symphony No. 2, K. 137
8. Andante [5:55]
9. Allegro di molto [3:32]
10. Allegro Assai [2:53]

Salzburg Symphony No. 3, K. 138
11. Allegro [5:39]
12. Andante [6:24]
13. Presto [1:59]

Best of luck in getting the album you want!