THE SINGAPORE COLLECTION: RACHMANINOV SYMPHONIES & ORCHESTRAL MUSIC / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

RACHMANINOV

SYMPHONIES AND ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Lan Shui

BIS 2512 / 4 CDs TT: 5 hrs 6’11”

This is the first review of a series which I will refer to as “The Singapore Collection”, devoted to classical recordings by Singapore artists and artistic groups. The Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is the obvious starting point, having a tradition of making records from the early-1980s under its founding music director Choo Hoey. With Lan Shui’s tenure from 1997, the SSO began making big strides in its partnership with the independent (not any more) Swedish label BIS. Then came a multitude of well-received and critically acclaimed discs of a variety of repertoire, both mainstream and off the beaten path.

This Rachmaninov box-set is a culmination of the orchestra’s penchant for Russian repertoire, incorporating the three symphonies and complete orchestral music (excepting those with chorus and voices, such as The Bells). The symphonies were recorded first, dating as far back as 2008. These were originally issued as single discs, some coupled with concerto performances by Russian pianist Yevgeny Sudbin (Piano Concerto No.1 and Paganini Rhapsody), not included here.

The set opens with the First Symphony in D minor (Op.13), discarded by Rachmaninov after its disastrous premiere in 1897, but pieced together after the Second World War. It remains one of his boldest creations, and gets a very lively and trenchant performance befitting the early promise. The Symphonic Movement in D minor (1891), also referred to as his Youth Symphony, belies an obvious depth of influence to Tchaikovsky. Rachmaninov’s first tone poem, Prince Rostislav, dates from the same year and was inspired by a ballad by Aleksey Tolstoy (second cousin of Leo). This early style looks forward to his better-known tone poems The Rock and Isle of the Dead, and deserves listening.

Probably the weakest performance of the set was the Second Symphony in E minor (Op.27), which was the first to be recorded. It is still rather good although suffering from a surfeit of portamenti in all its movements, rendering it somewhat sickly sentimental. Ma Yue is the eloquently plain-singing clarinettist in the Adagio. Nonetheless, it held together well enough for SSO to programme it in its BBC Proms debut in 2014. The fill-up is Rachmaninov’s own transcription of Vocalise (Op.34 No.14), where portamenti are fine when sentimentality is key.

SSO at the BBC Proms, 2014.

Coming from Rachmaninov’s late period and years of exile in America was his Third Symphony in A minor (Op.44) and Symphonic Dances (Op.45), his last work before passing in Beverly Hills. Both receive fine performances despite the former’s final movement which is unusually short-winded and soon runs out of ideas. The latter supplies an appropriate response to his (discarded, so he thought) First Symphony, it first movement subject which once sounded defiant now returns as retiring and resigned. As a whole, this disc (recorded in 2011 and 2014) represented the mature SSO at a new high, an advance over on the previous few years.

The fourth and final disc has the most recent recordings (from 2012 to 2015), including tone poems The Rock (recorded last and arguably the finest in the set), Isle of the Dead, Capriccio Bohemien (a surprisingly effective showpiece in the slow-fast schema of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies), and the early but derivative Scherzo in D minor (1887), composed as a 14-year-old. Also included are four orchestral excerpts (Introduction, Intermezzo and Dances) from Rachmaninov’s first opera Aleko (1893) and a true rarity, the Prelude to The Miserly Knight (1904).

Lan Shui's work with the SSO
will never be forgotten.

There are famous recorded cycles of this repertoire, notably from the London Symphony Orchestra under Andre Previn (on EMI, now Warner), St Petersburg Philharmonic with Mariss Jansons (also EMI / Warner) and those vintage Melodiya recordings by Evgeny Svetlanov, but none is as complete as this survey. The much-vaunted BIS recorded sound lives up to the hype. This set is a source of Singaporean pride, and rightly so.

SPADES OF FATE / Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestral Institute / Review

 

SPADES OF FATE 

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory 

Orchestral Institute 

Conservatory Concert Hall 

Friday (18 October 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 October 2024 with the title "Young pianist Edenia Maureen delivers Rachmaninov's First Piano Concerto with bravura".

Russian music has such a following in Singapore that a large audience assembled to attend the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestral Institute’s latest concert conducted by Jason Lai. The name of Sergei Rachmaninov is guaranteed to sell tickets, even if it was with one of the Russian Romantic composer’s less often performed piano concertos. 

The First Piano Concerto in F sharp minor (Op.1) was composed when he was a conservatory student of eighteen, but underwent a major revision in 1917. It is this most commonly-heard later version that was performed by final-year student Indonesian pianist Edenia Maureen, a prizewinner of the conservatory’s concerto competition. 

Photo: Neo Jie Ning

Her diminutive frame was no impediment to creating a big sonority, evident by the opening cascade of octaves and chords. The music was typically Slavic, lyrical and steeped in deep melancholy, but coloured by a scintillating piano part. Despite disadvantages posed by overwhelming orchestral forces, she more than held her own, also delivering the first movement cadenza that headily mixed bravura with poetry. 

The slow movement could have wallowed in sentimentality but an even keel was maintained, its relative restraint giving way to the finale’s feast of fireworks. Here, Maureen overcame some of the work’s trickiest fingerwork to race the orchestra to a spectacular conclusion. Although trailing behind the Second and Third Concertos by a great distance, this underrated concerto got a performance it deserved. 

There was to be no encore, but the concerto was preluded by Rachmaninov’s most famous song, the wordless Vocalise (Op.34 No.14) in a reduced chamber orchestration. For this reading, the seamlessly mellifluous vocal line was carried by Huang Yi’s excellent viola solo, its plaintive quality totally befitting the music’s trail of pathos. 

Photo: Neo Jie Ning

Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony in F minor (Op.36) completed the programme. The concert’s title relates to the chorus of brass that announces the Fate motif at the work’s very outset. Interestingly, a much shorter but similar motif also opened the Rachmaninov concerto as well. This idee fixe (fixed idea) or recurrent theme would later intervene at various parts of the work. 

Most of the heavy lifting took place in the massive first movement, which ran the risk of being top heavy. For moments, the pace dragged a little but conductor Lai ensured that a nervous tension was sustained for long enough stretches. 

The oboe solo in the slow movement came across a little cut-and-dried but the solo bassoon, playing the same doleful melody, got it just right near its end. Thereafter, this symphony became a veritable showcase of the students’ virtuosity. The string pizzicato paradise of the Scherzo was simply delightful, followed by the woodwinds’ miniature military march (with the piccolo’s significant contribution) and splendid brass chorale. 

The cymbal player
never gets to play this much!

The Russian folksong-influenced finale was a hell-for-leather ride and the Fate motif’s inevitable return was that moment when one gets a lump in the throat. Getting listeners to the edge of their seats is the very reason why so many people cannot get enough of Russian music.

Photo: Neo Jie Ning

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Dean
Peter Tornquist congratulates
music philanthropist Tan Kah Tee.

Celebrating Tan Kah Tee's birthday.

RACHMANINOV'S 24 PRELUDES / ANDREY GUGNIN Piano Recital / Review

RACHMANINOV’S 24 PRELUDES 

ANDREY GUGNIN Piano Recital 

Victoria Concert Hall 

Thursday (7 March 2024) 

This review was published in The Straits Times on 9 March 2023 with the title "Russian pianist Andrey Gugnin bring's Rachmaninov's lesser-known numbers to life".

There are artists who distinguish themselves as being special the moment they craft their first musical sounds. Russian pianist Andrey Gugnin, winner of international piano competitions in Sydney (2016) and Dubai (2024), is one of them. The first three notes of Sergei Rachmaninov’s infamous Prelude in C sharp minor (Op.3 No.2) were telling, and he delivered these to perfection. 

Why infamous? This was the Russian pianist-composer’s very early creation which made him world famous. He earned no royalties from the trifle, yet was obliged to perform at every recital ad nauseam simply because adoring audiences demanded to hear it. Gugnin took it with broad strokes, voicing each ensuing chord with sonorous heft, and completing the work with an idiomatic authority that felt completely natural and unforced. 

Thus began an arduous journey through 24 of Rachmaninov’s most personal and expressive miniatures. Rachmaninov never recorded the full set, and neither did Vladimir Horowitz nor Sviatoslav Richter, great pianists associated with his music. The kaleidoscopic range of the pieces, alternating major and minor keys, had Gugnin summoning the utmost of his interpretive and technical resources. 

He did so with stunning aplomb, breathing life into lesser-known numbers which do not often get heard. The D minor Prelude (Op.23 No.3), crafted like a minuet, delighted in the left hand’s sardonic laughter while maintaining an apparent poker face. The E minor Prelude (Op.32 No.4) was a foray into outright dissonance, its procession of alarum bells portending impending danger was ramped up to a crazed frenzy with frightening intensity. 

In the more familiar pieces, Gugnin was never intent of dispatching mere notes. In the nocturne-like D major Prelude (Op.23 No.4), a lily was being gilded, while the G minor Prelude (Op.23 No.5) had one guessing as to whether it was a march or a dance. There could not have been a more seamless singing line in the G major Prelude (Op.32 No.5) while the wellspring of melancholy that is the G sharp minor Prelude (Op.32 No.12) was poignantly realised. 

On the technical front, Gugnin was mostly unimpeachable. The roaring left hand arpeggios and cascading chords in B flat major (Op.23 No.2), and treacherous right hand flutterings in E flat minor (Op.23 No.9) were overcome with almost nonchalant ease. Only in the A flat major Prelude (Op.23 No.8) did he get lost in its thickets, but without flinching or stopping, he artfully improvised a way out to safety and the home key. 

Rachmaninov touches the heart by being a passion merchant, his stentorian chords often doing the trick, and Gugnin’s mastery of the B minor and final D flat major Preludes (Op.32 Nos.10 & 13) truly brought out the bittersweet side of his Slavic inscrutability and vulnerability. 

Gugnin’s three generous encores were further reasons to celebrate his pianism. Felix Blumenfeld’s Etude for the left hand and Mikhail Pletnev’s Andante Maestoso transcription from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker epitomised beauty on the keyboard while Prokofiev’s Precipitato (from Sonata No.7) romped home with thunderous panache.      

All photos by Ung Ruey Loon, 

by courtesy of Altenburg Arts. 

A Piano Recital Not To Miss: ANDREY GUGNIN performs RACHMANINOV 24 Preludes

Here is a piano recital not to be missed!

Russia-born ANDREY GUGNIN is one of the most exciting pianists in the concert circuit today, distinguished by his adventurous programming, virtuosic performances and probing insight into whatever repertoire he chooses to perform. First prizewinner of the 2016 Sydney International Piano Competition, he has made several well-received recordings on various labels. Notable are his performances of Shostakovich piano music and a programme inspired by Leopold Godowsky on the Hyperion label.

His Singapore debut showcases a rare complete performance of the 24 Preludes of Sergei Rachmaninov.

ANDREY GUGNIN Piano Recital

RACHMANINOV 

Prelude in C sharp minor, Op.3 No.2

Ten Preludes, Op.23

Thirteen Preludes, Op.32

Victoria Concert Hall

7 March 2024, 8.15 pm

To book tickets:

Andrey Gugnin | Altenburg Arts | Singapore (altenburg-arts.com)

Watch this performance of Rachmaninov's Preludes:

Watch also:

Andrey Gugnin is presented 

by Altenburg Arts.

CD Review (The Straits Times, May 2019)

FOUR WORLDS

MOYE CHEN, Piano

Deutsche Grammophon 481 7037 / *****

It is often opined, particularly by Western music critics, that Asian musicians have loads of technique but lack feeling, gravitas, authenticity and even originality in their playing. Here is a new recording of music from the “Golden Age of the piano” that challenges that notion by Beijing native Moye Chen, making his debut disc after winning 3^rd prize at the 2016 Sydney International Piano Competition.

Its title refers to the continents inhabited by the three great 20^th century pianist-composers Sergei Rachmaninov, Vladimir Horowitz (Europe) and Percy Grainger (Australia), and Chen himself (Asia) who made their homes and careers in the United States of America. The works, both original works and transcriptions, represent a wide range of styles.

There is an “Old World” Romanticism to Rachmaninov’s early pieces (Serenade and Melodie from Op.3, and Humoresque from Op.10). Here he performs the alternative versions which are almost improvisatory and far more difficult. A bygone patriotic spirit occupies Grainger’s Colonial Song and Londonderry Air, before striding expansively into the jazzy “New World” swagger of Grainger’s In Dahomey (cheekily subtitled a “cakewalk smasher”) and Horowitz’s Danse Excentrique (a first cousin to Debussy’s Golliwogg’s Cakewalk).

Chen is fully attuned to these contrasting idioms, and emotes unsparingly in the perfumed paraphrases of Richard Strauss’ opera Der Rosenkavalier and Gershwin’s Broadway hit Love Walked In. Finally, outright virtuosity reigns in Horowitz’s outrageous transcription of Sousa’s The Stars And Stripes Forever (with two hands simulating three hands), and Rachmaninov’s over-the-top Second Sonata, also taking in Horowitz’s unbuttoned additions. There is no shame to gawk and enjoy here.

CD Review (The Straits Times, November 2017)

PREGHIERA

RACHMANINOV Piano Trios

Kremer. Dirvanauskaite.Trifonov

Deutsche Grammophon 479 6979 / *****

The album's title Preghiera (Prayer) refers to a short piece for violin and piano by Fritz Kreisler, a reworking of the melodious themes found in the slow movement of his close friend and musical collaborator Sergei Rachmaninov's popular Second Piano Concerto. Like much of the Russian's music, it is melancholic but the underlying prettiness shines through. It serves as a prelude to the his two piano trios, brooding early works which are performed in reverse chronological order.

The much longer Piano Trio No.2 in D minor (Op.9), just under 50 minutes in playing time, was composed in memory of his mentor Tchaikovsky who died in 1893. It is modelled almost exactly after Tchaikovsky's own Piano Trio in A minor, dedicated to the late Nicholas Rubinstein. Even the slow movement is a set of variations, but based on the main theme from Rachmaninov's tone poem The Rock. Tchaikovsky's influence also heavily pervades the single-movement Piano Trio in G minor, which is reminiscent of a tragic romance. 

This disc celebrates the 70^th birthday of Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer, who retains his characteristic wiry and acerbic tone, but tempers it with no little tenderness. He is partnered by younger but no less skilled partners, Lithuanian cellist Giedre Dirvanauskaite and Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov. A winner from start to finish.

GRAND RUSSIAN / ALBERT TIU Piano Recital / Review

GRAND RUSSIAN

ALBERT TIU Piano Recital

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Friday (7 October 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 10 October 2016 with the title "Passionate rendition of Russian rarities".

What makes Russian Romantic music so attractive and compelling that a large audience was enticed to the Conservatory on a Friday evening to attend a recital comprising two piano sonatas which could rightly be considered rarities?

The names of Tchaikovsky (left) and Rachmaninov provided a clue, as both Russians composed tuneful works with emotions firmly emblazoned on their sleeves. Pathos and tragedy are writ large in their often overwrought scores such that listeners are put through a wringer and come out feeling a spiritual catharsis. Just like a good movie. Or maybe it was the name of Albert Tiu, surely the most adventurous and thematically sophisticated pianist in Singapore today.

It was really a bit of both, as he began his recital with Tchaikovsky's Grand Sonata in G major Op.37. Big chords dominated the opening movement, delivered with fearless panache but tempered by a Schumannesque lyricism which made contrasts all the more apparent. The shortcoming was not Tiu's but Tchaikovsky's, because the repetitious piece in four movements which ran past the half-hour mark seemed to go on a bit too long.

The perpetual movement in the 3^rd movement's Scherzo provided a worthwhile diversion but that was too short-winded. It was left for the Finale to combine the extremes  - with more loud notes and prestidigitation – leading to a vertiginous climax before bringing down the house.

This Tchaikovsky-Rachmaninov tandem was strategic in other ways. Tchaikovsky was Rachmaninov's mentor and musical “father”. Both their grand sonatas were in the same key as the grand piano concertos they were yet to compose, as well as being written-out premonitions.

Rachmaninov's First Piano Sonata in D minor Op.28 that occupied the second half was even longer, but in Tiu's hands, that never became an issue. The brooding and ruminative opening predicted his Third Piano Concerto, and Tiu built up a strong case by drawing the listener into the unsettling heart of this very personal music.

The oft-quoted association of this symphonically conceived work with the Faust legend is apt, as its three movements seemed to reflect the conflicted personas of Faust, Gretchen and Mephistopheles. While the 1^st movement struggled with turmoil and upheaval, the slow 2^nd movement was a calming and tender portrait, while the finale was a devilish hell-for-leather ride into the abyss.

In each of these, Tiu's views were highly characterised in the gripping narrative, with each movement carved out with a granite-like assuredness and inexorability. There was hardly a dropped note let alone a moment's loss of concentration. There have only been three complete performances of this work in Singapore in living memory. Tiu gave two of these, including the local premiere in 2004. If anything, this last epic reading surpassed his first in terms of passion and volatility.     

Taking a break from barnstorming, his encore promised something totally different: Percy Grainger's Irish Tune From County Derry, popularly known as Danny Boy. After Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, it came like a blast of fresh air.

   

SSO CONCERT: RACHMANINOV CONCERTO NO.3 / Review

GALA: RACHMANINOV CONCERTO NO.3

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Thursday (3 December 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 5 December 2015 with the title "Ashkenazy leads the SSO through a rousing Rachmaninov evening."

An earlier review from this listener posited that Rachmaninov's name helped sell concert tickets. Now add Vladimir Ashkenazy's to that, a full-house becomes a certainty. In the celebrated Russian-born pianist-conductor's third concert leading the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, even the gallery behind the orchestra was filled to over-flowing.

The concert opened with Vocalise Op.34 No.14, Rachmaninov's only wordless song, in his own orchestration. An early woodwind miscue almost spoiled things but it was the seamless strings that saved it. Melismata from the violins added a glossy sheen, which lightened up the bittersweet mood of the short 6-minute piece.

Usually performed as an encore, it seemed the perfect prelude to the Third Piano Concerto which featured prize-winning Russian pianist Alexei Volodin as soloist. Again another woodwind miscue sullied the exposition, a chant-like melody reminiscent of Russian orthodoxy, but thankfully that was to be the last mishap. The rock steady Volodin, directed by the musician who has recorded the concerto the most times (five at last count), was not to be perturbed.

If he seemed cool in the 1^st movement, it was a wise gambit which allowed his solo part to be better integrated within the orchestra's textures. He let off the brakes in the development section and simply took off, culminating in a cadenza of pure elemental energy. In the unusual accompanied section of that cadenza, he backed down and became the perfect partner to Jin Ta's flute, Rachel Walker's oboe, Ma Yue's clarinet and Jamie Hersch's French horn. 

The orchestral introduction of the slow movement was perfectly weighted, and then the mood turned red hot. This was tempered by a whimsical waltz section where Volodin's scintillating fingerwork floated over the orchestra's busyness. The finale was a white-hot bare-knuckled ride, filled with exciting edge-of-the-seat moments, yet there was even time to breathe in the central variations which revealed a different facet to his virtuosity. A standing ovation yielded two Slavic encores, a Chopin mazurka and Prokofiev's brilliant Scherzo (Op.12 No.10)

  

The second half belonged to the Symphonic Dances, Rachmaninov's last work, and sometimes regarded as his fifth symphony (after Nos.1-3 and The Bells). Ashkenazy's vision was one of terminal nostalgia, reflecting the composer's yearning for his homeland and roots which would never be fulfilled.

The Non Allegro direction on the score was not taken literally, instead with a forceful urgency that dissipated with Tang Xiao Ping's soulful saxophone solo. That and the restatement of a theme from his First Symphony (then thought to be forever lost) took on a greater significance.

The second movement waltzed with ghostly intent like some ballroom scene from War And Peace, and the finale's raucous juxtaposition of the Dies Irae chant with a hymn from his choral Vespers became a paean of sorts. As with many Rachmaninov scores, ambivalence and ambiguity are recurrent traits. So was this a celebratory end or a defiant one?

Judging from the joyous rather than dogged approach from all forces, and Ashkenazy holding high his score to greet the audience's hearty reception, his view clearly pointed to the former. 

SSO CONCERT: RACHMANINOV CONCERTO NO.2 / Review

RACHMANINOV CONCERTO NO.2

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (30 October 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 November 2015 with the title "Concerto does justice to Rachmaninov".

The name of Sergei Rachmaninov is an indispensable marketing tool. Its use is almost certain to ensure a well-filled hall, even if the duration of music in the concert does not last more than an hour. Such was the case of this evening's concert by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Music Director Shui Lan which included a popular piano concerto and two short orchestral pieces.

The Russian composer was certainly a talented lad of 14 when he wrote his Scherzo in D minor (1887), a wisp of a work lasting all of five minutes. Feathery lightness was the key in reliving its Mendelssohnian charm, with the pairs of flutes and bassoons flitting effortlessly as the strings ran circles with an engaging if not memorable melody.

Further promise was to follow in the symphonic poem The Rock (1893), Rachmaninov's first important orchestral work. Its subject was based on a Chekhov tale of old age confronting youth, with principal flautist Jin Ta confidently helming the leading role. The music, already imbued with the composer's trademark Slavic melancholy, impressively built up to a Tchaikovskyan climax with brass ablazing before receding quietly.

The short first half lasting under 30 minutes was followed by the titular Second Piano Concerto (1901), which ran just past the half-hour. Those expecting a barnstorming account a la Lang Lang would have been disappointed with Argentine pianist Nelson Goerner's noble and unhistrionic account. Although of slight physical stature, he was no weakling, bringing much musicality and no little degree of polish to the proceedings.

Unlike the very showy Third Piano Concerto, the solo piano part of the Second is intricately woven within the fabric of the orchestral scoring. As such the orchestra was careful not to overwhelm, and the balance was very well managed while teetering on a tightrope. Marc-Antoine Robillard's horn solo near the end of the first movement was excellent, and Ma Yue's clarinet distinguished the opening of the slow movement.

Some of the best moments were also the most subtle, such as the lush violins singing at the Adagio's close accompanied by big piano chords. The work then caught fire for the coruscating finale, where mercurial reflexes jostled keenly with the movement's “big tune”, probably the most anticipated part of the concerto. Goerner's technique more than matched the bluster applied for the grandstand finish, which brought out the cheers.

No respectable SSO concert at Esplanade ends before nine, when the night is beneath young. So Goerner offered two very well-received encores: Scriabin's wistful Poeme in F sharp major (Op.32 No.1), beautifully voiced, and the sweeping virtuosity of Chopin's Prélude in D minor (Op.28 No.24). The gesture was a nice one, but as everybody knows, quality trumps quantity any day or night.     

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, March 2015)

SVIATOSLAV RICHTER

Complete Album Collection

Sony Classical 88843014702 (18 CDs)

****1/2    

The reputation of legendary Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter (1915-1997) had already preceded him when he made his debut American concert tour in late 1960. Tickets to his six Carnegie Hall recitals were sold out in advance and studio recordings of concertos and popular repertoire had been lined up. This box-set captures all these concerts and the rave reception deservedly accorded by the New York audience. 

His first recital on 19 October had five Beethoven sonatas, with a blistering account of the rarely-performed F major Sonata (Op.54) preceding the tumultuous F minor Appassionata Sonata (Op.57). His all-Prokofiev recital on 23 October was a revelation; many in the audience were encountering the recently-deceased Soviet composer's Sixth and Eighth Sonatas for the very first time.

The best way to sample these discs is to replicate the exact sequence in which the Americans were being exposed to Richter's gripping genius. His repertoire was selective but far-reaching, with Haydn, Schumann, Chopin, Debussy, Ravel, Rachmaninov and Scriabin thrown into the mix. The recitals on 26 and 28 December have the same programme but different encores. The only caveat: the Carnegie Hall in-house recording equipment was rudimentary and the sound is wretched. 

The studio recordings of Brahms Piano Concerto No.2 (Chicago Symphony with Erich Leinsdorf) and Beethoven Piano Concerto No.1 (Boston Symphony / Charles Munch) with RCA Victor have excellent sound and are acknowledged classics. Two discs of 1988 live recordings of Brahms' Sonata No.1, Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.1, Chopin Etudes and Liszt solo works showed that his visionary spark and phenomenal technique had not dimmed through the years. These performances demonstrate why Richter was regarded by many as the greatest pianist of the 20^th century.  

RACHMANINOV

Complete Works For Piano

VLADIMIR ASHKENAZY, Piano et al

Decca 478 6348 (11 Cds) / *****

The Russia-born pianist-conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy has the distinction of being the only person to have recorded every single note Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) wrote for the piano, which includes solo works, concertos, chamber music and songs. 

This labour of love with the Decca label began in 1963 soon after his defection from Russia to the West, continuing till 2012 with a final disc of miscellaneous short and unpublished works. This box-set relives some of the best Rachmaninov playing on record, including Ashkenazy's second (and more opulent) cycle of the four piano concertos and Paganini Rhapsody, with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Bernard Haitink.

Among the solo works, his view of the nine Etudes-Tableaux Op.39 and Corelli Variations (two recordings of each from 1973 and again in the mid-80s) remain unsurpassed for passion, colour and sheer Russian-ness. Unforgettable too are the two Suites (Op.5 & 17) and Symphonic Dances for two pianos where he is partnered by Andre Previn. 

Only the Piano Sonatas Nos.1&2 fall somewhat short of his highest ideals, the former recorded in 2011 after he had been diagnosed with arthritis. Making cameo appearance are his wife Dody and eldest son Vovka, both pianists, in the Romance and Waltz for six hands and assorted piano duets. For Ashkenazy's authority, sheer breadth and depth of emotional investment, this set is close to indispensable.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, November 2013)

ZELENSKI / ZARZYCKI

Piano Concertos

JONATHAN PLOWRIGHT, Piano

BBC Scottish Symphony / Lukasz Borowicz

Hyperion 67958 / ****1/2

How many Polish composers who came between Chopin and Szymanowski can you name? If you remembered Moszkowski, Scharwenka, Paderewski or Godowsky, that is not bad at all. Now meet Wladyslaw Zelenski (1837-1921) and Aleksander Zarzycki (1834-1895), whose names are hardly breathed outside their homeland. Both with professors and directors of the Warsaw Music Institute, leading lights of Polish musical society, with the former being the slightly better known. 

To Zelenski’s credit, his Piano Concerto in E flat major (1903) does not imitate Chopin but is anachronistic for its time, the Romantic and martial strains in the outer moments coming from an earlier age. The second movement is a moving and dramatic theme and variations filled with tension and bluster.

Zarzycki’s Piano Concerto in A flat major (1859-60), a shorter work in two movements, combines Lisztian flair with the delicious humour to be found in Saint-Saëns. Capping it is a Grand Polonaise in E flat major composed during the same period, which is every bit as good and memorable as Chopin’s own orchestrated Grand Polonaise Brillante (Op.22). British pianist Jonathan Plowright, a specialist in Polish music, gives highly spirited performances that can only win new friends for his cause. 

RACHMANINOV Isle Of The Dead

The Rock / Symphonic Dances

Bergen Philharmonic / Andrew Litton

BIS 1751 / ****1/2

This CD brings together the major orchestral works of Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) outside of his three symphonies and choral symphony The Bells, spanning his youth, maturity and his final years. Composed in 1893, The Rock was his first major tone poem, based on a Chekhov short story The Meeting. Though resembling his mentor Tchaikovsky’s style, his flair for pathos and the dramatic is already evident. More mature is Isle Of The Dead (1909), inspired by Arnold Böcklin’s painting of the same title, coming from the same period as his Second Symphony and Third Piano Concerto. Its lugubrious opening builds up to a heady climax with some of Rachmaninov’s most ecstatic and chilling music.

Symphonic Dances (1942) was Rachmaninov’s last work, sometimes regarded to be his unnumbered symphony. Its three movements are a nostalgic glance of his forsaken homeland. Music of melancholy, a haunting Tolstoyan waltz, and the pomp of the Orthodox Church (including quotes of the medieval chant Dies Irae and his choral Vespers) make this in certain ways, his most Russian piece. Norway’s finest orchestra led by Andrew Litton (who recently guest-conducted the SSO) captures the moods and nuances perfectly.