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Philips 50 - Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto, Etc / Argerich


Release Date: 05/08/2001 
Label:  Philips   Catalog #: 464732   Spars Code: DDD 
Composer:  Sergei Rachmaninov
Performer:  Martha Argerich,  Nelson Freire
Conductor:  Riccardo Chailly
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Number of Discs: 1 
Recorded in: Stereo 
Length: 1 Hours 2 Mins. 

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Notes and Editorial Reviews


Martha Argerich's live 1982 Rachmaninov Third Concerto was one of the tape underground's hottest properties before Philips officially issued it in 1995. The sound on this newly remastered edition is brighter and more defined, with clearer timpani and low strings, but the essential timbre has not changed. This is febrile, edge-of-your-seat, tightrope-walking piano playing: swashbuckling, spontaneous, and soulful. You never know what Argerich is going to do from one moment to the next, but damned if Chailly doesn't anticipate his soloist's every whim, and then some. If you're not left limp with awe at the end, you haven't been listening! Argerich plays the lighter-textured, technically easier, and Read more musically superior first movement cadenza, as the composer himself did.


I've never really warmed to the Argerich/Freire Rachmaninov Second Suite, recorded in 1982. It sounds better here than in previous CD incarnations, yet the sonics remain glassy, cavernous, and glaring, as many early digital productions tended to be. As a result, much of the pair's overly fast playing whizzes by like blurred, run-on paragraphs, most hurtfully so in the Waltz. Likewise, the Alla Marcia is breathless and unyielding, although the Tarantella Finale manages to dance with cohesion despite the breakneck speed. On the other hand, I prefer the unforced singing line and greater continuity of the Andantino to Argeich's remake with Alexandre Rabinowitch for Teldec. But it's the concerto that counts, and my rating solely reflects its artistic and sonic merits.
--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com Read less

Works on This Recording

1. Concerto for Piano no 3 in D minor, Op. 30 by Sergei Rachmaninov
Performer:  Martha Argerich (Piano)
Conductor:  Riccardo Chailly
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1909; Russia 
2. Suite for 2 Pianos no 2, Op. 17 by Sergei Rachmaninov
Performer:  Nelson Freire (Piano), Martha Argerich (Piano)
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1900-1901; Russia 

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review:  ( 1 Customer Review )
 A MOMENT FOR THE AGES October 10, 2012 By GARY WHITING (SOOKE, BC) See All My Reviews "Martha Argerich's intensely overpowering live Rachmaninoff commands the senses. A performance so penetrating that one knows and feels the clever and insightful spirit exploding on the keyboard has become part of the music she was to represent. The immediate adulation, praise and excited appreciative response from the audience is extraordinary and a clear statement that they understood as the dynamic execution betrayed a revelation for the ages. Truly irresistible." Report Abuse
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