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Product Details
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Track Listings
| 1. Moderato |
| 2. Adagio Sostenuto |
| 3. Allegro Scherzando |
| 4. Allegro Ma Non Tanto |
| 5. Intermezzo: Adagio |
| 6. Finale: Alla Breve |
Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ardent Rachmaninoff,
By
This review is from: Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3 (Audio CD)
Critics tend to compare pianists with legendary elders (Volodos is the new Horowitz, Brendel was the new Schnabel, etc.). Stephen Hough reminds me not so much of any pianist as a conductor: Arturo Toscanini. No, Hough is not temperamental like the Italian Maestro. But his approach to music interpretation seems to be to discard traditional tempo changes, rubatos, and the like (which Toscanini derided as "the last bad performance") study the score as if it were being played for the first time, and make any interpretive decisions on that basis.
Thus it's no surprise to me that Hough's recordings of Rachmaninoff's Second and Third Piano Concertos have offended some, to judge by other reviews of this disc as well as the complete set. For those accustomed to hearing the Second Concerto played in a sentimental, brooding, Hollywood manner, Hough's vigorous, ardent approach will come as a shock. I find it bracing. And having studied the score, I find nothing that Hough does violates the spirit or letter of the music. Take, for example, the first movement's opening chords, which most pianists offer at a slow tempo, but which Hough plays strictly in time with the main body of the movement. By doing so, he brings the structure of the movement into bold relief - and the main theme is all the more emotional because the opening chords don't wring all the emotion from the music in the first few seconds. Whether Rachmaninoff himself played it that way in his two recordings is irrelevant. The composer himself was quick to praise interpretations of his works which differed from his own, but were convincing on their own terms (as in Horowitz's performance of the Third Concerto). The above also applies to Hough's recording of the Third Concerto. The opening movement is given at a brisk, restless tempo, heading straight for the cadenza (Hough plays the shorter one favored by the composer). The second movement does not deflate into narcolepsy, and the finale is thrilling - quicksilver without descending into banging. Both Concertos are played without cuts - which has thankfully become standard these days. Under Hough's very able hands these concertos emerge as fresh and vital - rather than something for the blue-hairs to daydream to. The performances on this disc stem from live recordings. The audience is quiet during the performances, but the applause is retained at the conclusion of each piece. The sound is clean and focused without being overly immediate.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not worthy of all the awards and accolades. Poor balance.,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3 (Audio CD)
I was looking forward to this recording because of all the incredible reviews in Grammophone, Classics [...] and internet users, not to mention my own admiration of several Stephen Hough CDs that I already have and the outstanding Rachmaninov Symphony #2 recorded by Litton with the Royal Philharmonic. Well, the first thing that one notices is that the piano is overpowered by the orchestra. Either the orchestra is miked too loudly or the piano too low, but the result is that at comfortable listening levels the piano occasionally gets lost and one is constantly fiddling with the volume controls because of the poor balance between the two. Secondly, the interpretation is not really very atmospheric. Most of the great interpretations of the second concerto have a haunting melancholy combined with a rhapsodic poetry that seems missing hear. I'm comparing Hough to Rachmaninov/Stokowski, Richter/Wislocki, Gieseking/Mengelberg, Rubinstein/Reiner, Wild/Horenstein, Ashkenazy/Previn, Janis/Dorati, Kapell/Steinberg and even Shelley/Thompson. As for the 3rd concerto, the sound is slightly better but there are far more interesting and exciting recordings for this to compete with, most of the above plus Horowitz/Reiner and Rodriguez/McRae. So, in spite of all the awards and accolades, this is disappointing.
I'm sure there will be many who disagree with this evaluation, but without the ability to clearly hear the piano over the orchestra (especially in the heavenly adagio) coupled with the absence of much poetry, this cannot get more than 2 stars. Sorry.
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