Rachmaninoff: 王羽佳

This 10-CD set wowed audiences when it first appeared in 1992, and with good reason – although music scholars and classical record collectors were well aware of it, the general classical audience of the late twentieth century likely had no inkling of how extensively Rachmaninov had recorded and otherwise preserved aspects of his playing and performances (in addition to his actual recordings, there were also the piano rolls that he did for the American Piano Company, which are a matter separate from this collection, and transcribed and released by Decca/London Records on CD).

Sergey Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil, also known as the Vespers, is among his most admired works, and it was one of the composer's own favorites, along with The Bells. This 2015 Chandos release by Charles Bruffy and the combined voices of the Phoenix Chorale and the Kansas City Chorale presents the music in the super audio format, so the richness of the divisi choral parts and the depth of the basso profundo come across fully in the multichannel reproduction. Bruffy is the musical director of both groups, so his special rapport with them creates an even ensemble blend that balances the largely homophonic textures, and brings a consistency of approach to the three styles of chant Rachmaninov imitated, Kievan, Greek, and Znamenny. The beauty of the a cappella voices and the surprisingly lush harmonies make this setting immediately appealing and ultimately moving, and listeners who enjoy sacred choral music for inspiration or meditation will find the All-Night Vigil's smooth flow and expressive warmth well-suited to those purposes.

Mikhail Pletnev and the newly formed Rachmaninoff International Orchestra (RIO) performed under the baton of Kent Nagano all four Rachmaninoff piano concertos and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in October 2023.

This 8-CD set contains the works for piano solo by Sergei Rachmaninoff, 20-th century romantic, one of the greatest pianists of all time himself. In his iconic piano works he expresses his deepest personal emotions, from ecstatic joy and tolling of bells, to Slavic melancholy and utter tragedy. Many of his works became standard concert repertoire: the 24 Preludes, the Etudes-tableaux, the Moments Musicaux, the two Piano Sonatas and the two Variations sets on themes by Corelli and Chopin.

Given that there are so many discs of the Rachmaninov Piano Concertos available to buy, you have to ask what makes this set different or better than the rest? It's quite refreshing for a start, that all the works are played by different pianists. My main incentive to buy it was Nikolai Petrov's fantastic performance of the 4th Concerto in G minor, its first release on CD from vinyl.

Like her other duo-recording venture with pianist Alexandre Rabinovitch, this album again demonstrates why pianist Martha Argerich is the grand dame of two-piano works. This album, with pianist Nelson Freire, offers another interpretation of the Rachmaninoff Second Suite for Two Pianos as well as a transcription of Ravel's La Valse and Lutoslawski's Variations on a Theme of Paganini. Unlike many other piano duos, Argerich and Freire are capable of drawing an amazingly convincing, almost symphonic sound out of their two instruments.

This new recording (recorded in 2012) brings together two great, but altogether different 20th century Cello Sonatas from Russia: the gorgeous and deeply romantic cello sonata by Rachmaninoff, of near‐symphonic proportions, and the cello sonata by Prokofiev, a hybrid piece of his later period, a fascinating mixture of the romantic, the grotesque and the introspective side of the multi-faceted composer..