Rachmaninov Piano Concertos

The Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18, is a concerto for piano and orchestra composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff between the autumn of 1900 and April 1901. The second and third movements were first performed with the composer as soloist on 2 December 1900. The complete work was premiered, again with the composer as soloist, on 9 November 1901, with his cousin Alexander Siloti conducting. This piece is one of Rachmaninoff's most enduringly popular pieces, and established his fame as a concerto composer.

To celebrate the 150th birthday of Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), Yuja Wang joined the L.A. Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel to perform all four of the composer's piano concertos and his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini over two consecutive weekends. This ambitious project took place at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the city where Rachmaninoff spent the last months of his life.

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…

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli's classic recordings of the Ravel G major and Rachmaninov G minor concertos have never been out of the catalog since they first appeared more than 40 years ago. Surface and style are one in this music, and the Italian pianist remains unsurpassed for his icy precision and micro-detailing. He brings pinpointed elan to Rachmaninov's sizzling cross-rhythms in the Fourth Concerto's Allegro Vivace movement, as well as laser-like concentration to the tartly lush Largo. Few have matched Michelangeli's nuance and color in the Ravel concerto, and his seamless dispatch of Ravel's "singing sword" effect in the opening movement belies the notion that you can't bend notes on a piano.

Noriko Ogawa and the Malmö Symphony Orchestra return to the works of Rachmaninov with a disc featuring his first and fourth piano concertos and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Rachmaninov’s first concerto was written while he was a student at the Moscow Concervatory, but underwent considerable revisions up to 1917.

This Naxos CD was released in 1998 and features 1995 recordings of Rachmaninov's Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 4 with the considerable bonus of the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op.43. As is often the case with Naxos orchestral recordings of this vintage, the sound is a little distant but opens up to reveal more than adequate engineering at higher volume levels.

These performances, dating from the 80s when the young Russian pianist was at his peak (he soon withdrew himself from the music scene), are among the best for Rachmaninoff's music.