Customer Reviews

Sergei Rachmaninoff: The Complete Recordings

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4 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I still remember how excited I was when this collection first became available. Finally, I could hear a huge number of Rachmaninoff's pieces performed by the master himself, and discover his true intentions for the pieces.

Upon listening to the discs, I was both pleased and disappointed. On one hand, the performances are irreplaceable, because Rachmaninoff's own performances must be considered the fundamental reference point for interpretation of his compositions. Rachmaninoff tended to play fast and without exaggeration, almost "dry." His performances are quite different than what has come to be accepted as "standard." I like his style, but some may find it too brusque.

My disappointment comes from the sound quality of the discs. While RCA did its best with the ancient source material, the hiss and pop and general "low-fidelity" of these recordings can be distracting, and can occasionally make it difficult to hear everything that is going on. Peak orchestral volume can create distortion drowning out the piano, for example. For acoustical reasons, it would be difficult to play this music casually - if you played these discs for friends without explanation, they would wonder what's wrong with your stereo. So I listen to these discs primarily for analytical purposes - when I want to compare and contrast Rachmaninoff's performances with others'. Yes I have occasionally listened for simple pleasure, but my ears prefer newer recordings that sound more "real," even if the performance itself is not as good.

At the time of this review, whenever you search for a phrase such as "Rachmaninoff Complete", amazon's search engine always lands on this out-of-print recording (ASIN: B000003FB7) . It's also no fun to see that it costs more than a hundred bucks! But if you type "B000A2AD2S" in the search box, you'll see the new reissued set for half the price. It's the exact same 10 CDs. Just the cover art is different.

Unfortunately, this situation is a common pattern with amazon's listing of classical music: when you use your intuition and type in common-sense search phrases for Bach, Mozart, etc, you often get the ultra-expensive out-of-print ships-in-4-weeks items as the default item. It takes a lot of detective work to find the newer reissue recordings. For example, to find the new reissue without knowing the ASIN, I had to enter just "Rachmaninoff" in the search text (deliberately left the word "Complete" out of the search) so it would no longer lock me into this item page that you're looking at and give me a full listing instead. I then sorted the listing by "Original Release Date" and found it on the 2nd page. There's no picture on the new item which doesn't give you any confidence that you found the right one. Don't worry, B000A2AD2S is what you want.

For product research, it's good to have both ASIN product listings because the older out-of-print B000003FB7 has the sound samples (and also all the helpful customer reviews) while the new B000A2AD2S has the better price and availability.

To make things even more confusing, the amazon staff sometimes copies entire customer reviews to the new item which would then make THIS review seem strangely out of place. If that happens and I notice it, I will delete this review for B000003FB7.

(In another strange twist, amazon searches in rock/pop usually points you to the newer cheaper remastered/repackaged/reissued/whatever of a particular recording. I don't know why it works the opposite way in classical music?!?!)

Quite simply a must for any serious collector of legendary performers from the past, this collection contains the entire recorded legacy of Sergei Rachmaninoff, considered by many to be one of the greatest if not "the" greatest pianist of our century. Containing outstanding recording notes as well as a full discography, this box set features not only brilliant individual interpretations of selected works of Rachmaninoff played imitiably by the composer but also outstanding performances of Chopin's B-flat minor sonata and Schumann's Carnaval. Although the recorded sound varies greatly from performance to performance, these interpretations will always remain an remarkable document of the Golden Age of Pianism which includes such illustrius names as Paderewski, Rosenthal, Hofmann, etc. At this budget price offered by RCA Gold Seal, it should be acquired by any serious lover of piano before it goes out of print.

This collection of recordings in a treasure and I'd consider it a bargin at twice the price. The remastering team has performed a miracle with the original tapes. Yes there is still some background noise, but the beauty of the music and the remarkable skill with which it is played quickly overshadows it. I would put Rachmaninoff's performance of any of these works up and challenge anyone to produce better performances. The insight Sergei brings to his performance from a composers point of view along with his unmatched virtuousity produces performances for the ages which we are lucky to have. This set is a must for any true classical music lover.

What can one say? It is Rachmaninoff. We just don't get pianists like this today. Not only a historical document, this set contains the best piano playing ever recorded. Please pay special attention to the Schumann Carnaval and Chopin Second Sonata.

My first reaction to this set was that the sound quality was horrible. That took about 2 minutes to get over, this is simply incredible stuff. I suppose if you compose something, and then you subsequently conduct those compositions, you're going to have an idea of what you want to convey to your audience. I got lost in "Isle of the Dead" while listening on my headphones...there were moments I had to stop what I was doing and just close my eyes...these CD's are a treasure.

Hofmann hit the nail on the head when he said Rachmaninov had "arms of steel and heart of gold". From this album, we can have a clear picture of Rachmaninov's vison of music, of his musical mind and thoughts and moreover his own playing.

While Kempff's playing would often remind of the protestant church music, Rachmaninov bring to our mind the chanting of the Orthodox church, which is much thicker and darker. On top of that, his playing is orchestral which is so powerful and full colours. Yet, it is nothing like Richter, where often the whole piece is just one phrase.

Here each piece has it's own life and identity each with a focal point. It is water tight compact and yet very much natural and alive, never as hair-raising as Horowitz. But, it is not natural in Arrau's way. It is somewhere in between, closer to Argerich but with more consistency and depth. And like Casals' playing, it keeps our attention from the first note up to its focal point until its very end. But unlike Casals, he touches our hearts. It is very emotional but never to the point of being sentimental-- the performance of his own concertos, for example, can tell you that.

Sure, he did have fingers of steel that helped him to bring out whatever colour or atmostphere as appropriate. And despite that fact that there are some minor alterations on the scores like his Chopin, he is one of the few pianists who could really show you every note on the score counts and, above all, how it counts...

His Chopin may not be as neurotic as Cortot. Nonetheless, he sheds light on the dark and nervous side of Chopin so well: a very throbbing interpretation that is so unique. We also have him accompanying Kreisler on some violin sonatas, something that one could turn to time and again, year after year. What a great chamber musician and accompanist he was...!

The recorded sound of the CDs do vary, and some are more acceptable than the others. But for genuine music lovers, they should be able to get over this very soon: how else would they benefit from one of the greatest legacies of a genuinely great musician!

My dear father introduced me to these recordings on LP back in the late 1970's. I was a very young piano student trying to tackle Schumann's Carnival at the time, and laying in bed in the dark listening to S. Rachmaninoff whisking through it like spring birds among the trees effortlessly in complete control of all harmony and melody and making me feel like I'd never ever be able to play like that. Well, many years later, much maturer, I realized I could come close. But never could anyone bring us the cultural, educational and pianistic gifts that this set allows us to enjoy. I could go on and on about the individual selections and how wonderful they are, but you all need to hear for yourselves. Everyone will have their own favorite, personally the variety is so great, the repertiore so large, there is always something for the moment. This set will always be the center and core of my collection. And believe me, that's alot to say since I delve into the remotist regions of pianistic jungles.
If any one has trouble with the sound quality, I have a suggestion. Use headphones, turn out the lights and LISTEN! There is nothing missing from these recordings except the modern listeners prejudices. It's all there, baby's, you just need to open your ears to it.
Good listening, and remember, it's all a gift.

To respond to a review about the sound quality-for those people who have no experience with historical performances i.e cortot-hofmann-etc these discs are for the most part much better recorded. There are the inevitable pops and hisses but if these things disturb you, or you cant get past them, then you shouldnt be listening to this kind of thing anyway. the importance here is in the playing, and the playing is extra ordinary. I you want to buy a disc for the reperatoire then i can think of hundreds of performances that will satisfy, but only people with a true interest to hear and study these pieces will be beyond satisfied. I know that may not sound like a lot of fun, but these discs are fun, great, and for me, almost too good to be true. Again, if sound disturbs you, then you may be listening to the music for the wrong reasons. Take from it the playing, the revelations that Rach provides to his pieces, and how fortunate we are that it sounds as good as it does.

These are some of the greatest performances ever set onto disc. They were, of course, originally recorded from the 1910s through early 1940s, and were recorded directly onto 78rpm originals - another review notwithstanding, there is no "tape" involved here, except the tapes onto which the 78s were transferred in the process of creating the CDs.

Let me make a few snarky observations, if I may:

1)As others have said, if you have a problem with the sound quality of old recordings, you're barking up the wrong tree. These are for people who are real pianophiles.

2)You CANNOT transfer old recordings onto CD while removing all of the surface noise. The surface noise and the music are engraved into the grooves of the original recordings in a single soundstream. Of course, it's possible to minimize the noise, but at the expense of the music - always. Don't be naive.

3)RCA has - as they did with their Caruso edition and others in the past - evidently made eliminating some noise a priority, so many of these transfers from original disks have a murky, "gray" sound quality. Compare this with the Pearl Rachmaninoff disc released (I think) in the early 1990s (with the purple cover). The quality of those transfers are crisp, bright, and rich. Also compare R's recordings as conductor (3rd Symphony, Isle of the Dead, etc.) with the Pearl re-issue with the color photograph of R. on the cover. Beautifully done! If only RCA could have left well enough alone, this would have been a perfectly executed reissue.

Lastly, an unfortunate fact is, for whatever reason it may be, Rachmaninoff's original recordings never had the best quality to begin with. I think it might have something to do with the oversized nature of his sound... and also there's the vagaries of record-making in the era, which could be pretty hit-or-miss. But compared with other concerto and solo discs from the era, R. didn't get the best treatment, unfortunately.

You can't find these recordings in a single collection anyplace else, so I guess if you want Rachmaninoff complete, go with this.