Maurizio Zacaria Rachmaninov

Legendary Russian pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy is considered the pre-eminent interpreter of Rachmaninov’s music, and as he marked his seventy-fifth birthday (6 July 2012), he recorded a final album of the composer’s music featuring the Seven Pieces (Moments Musicaux) Op.10, three Nocturnes, and ten shorter early works, including an unpublished 'Song without Words'.

Although Sergei Rachmaninov considered himself first and foremost a composer, the last two decades of his life found him knee-deep in his “second career” as a touring concert pianist and recording artist. In 1992, RCA Gold Seal brought out all of Rachmaninov’s recorded performances in a 10-disc set, now reprinted as a space-saving budget box.

How did you develop a taste for both music and piano? Jean-Jacques Bedikian: Simply in the family context. My father liked to gather at home friends or relatives who were amateur musicians, and he enjoyed these improvised concerts which took a large part of traditional, popular, or film music, as well as the classical repertoire. I would stay up as late as possible to listen, I would even wake back up to do so, and this is how the first contact with music took place, and also the awakening of the desire to get my hands on the piano keys. In fact, when I heard a piece of music that moved me, I would try to play it, without having taken any lessons, to replicate first the melody, then a semblance of a harmonic framework. So I had the desire to learn the piano, which is why I was introduced to my first teacher.

This very generous (79 min.) program of Rachmaninov and Liszt is a sterling representation of Horowitz's mastery in these two composers. It was issued in 2003 as a centennial tribute to the pianist, and quite a number of readings derive from live concerts. the span of time is relatively short - most of the performances come from 1967 and 1068, with several more from 1962, before he ended his self-imposed exile from concertizing. The sonics from that period could be a bit thin and shallow, but they are good enough, and at times, as in Rachmaninov's Etude-Tableau Op. 39 no. 5, Horowitz's full range of sound jumps out, making one wish that everything was this present and engrossing.

If you've been following the career of cellist Mischa Maisky, you've no doubt already encountered his previous recordings of "songs without words," his discs featuring songs by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, and Mendelssohn arranged for cello and piano. This 2007 disc of works by Russian composer Sergey Rachmaninov called Elégie is a continuation of Maisky's 2005 disc Vocalise, which included works by several Russian composers, including Rachmaninov.

In my own compositions, no conscious effort has been made to be original, or Romantic or Nationalistic, or anything else. I write down on paper the music I hear within me, as naturally as possible…

Rachmaninov - Etudes-Tableaux (2012) {EMI Classics} + Piano Sonatas 1 & 2 (2012) {Naive}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 410 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 306 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 89 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2012 EMI Classics / Naive | 50999 2 32282 2 1 / AM 208
Classical / Piano

While there is no knowing what whimsy prompted the fine fellows from the reissue department of EMI to release Vladimir Ovchinnikov's 1989 recording of both sets of Rachmaninov's Etudes-Tableaux in its "encore" series, one can only be grateful it did. Along with rereleasing both Richter's sublime Schumann disc and Barenboim's abysmal Beethoven disc, EMI has released for the first time this vivid and virtuosic Rachmaninov recording by Ovchinnikov.