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Rachmaninoff at 150
April 1st 2023 would have been the 150th birthday of the great Russian (and later American) conductor, pianist and composer Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff. His stirringly Romantic music has been a firm favourite with audiences and performers for over a century, and unsurprisingly it has been recorded extremely widely ever since the technology to do so became available.
Although Rachmaninoff's "back catalogue" is as impressive and broad as his famously expansive hand-span at the piano, to mark the anniversary we thought we'd focus instead on the most recent recordings of his compositions - even since the beginning of the 2020s, there has already been an incredible crop of performances.
Orchestral
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 4
Anna Fedorova (piano), Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen, Modestas Pitrenas
Anna Fedorova at long last presents the long-awaited studio follow-up to her enormously widely-viewed YouTube performance of the iconic, sweeping Second Piano Concerto - paired with the Fourth, a more adventurous work in which the composer's abiding love for the jazz records of Paul Whiteman occasionally peeks through.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
From the baton of John Wilson comes a recording likened to such legends of the past as Toscanini and Szell - Wilson's well-known affinity for the Hollywood orchestral sound fitting the music like a glove.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Never afraid to be musically exploratory, Robin Ticciati achieves such a degree of textural clarity in his account of the mighty Second Symphony that even listeners who think they know this beloved work inside-out might find themselves surprised at his revelation of musical details and subtleties.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Even as he pays homage to the Philadelphia Orchestra's long history with Rachmaninoff, Yannick Nézet-Séguin refuses to sit back and rely on borrowed past glories - Gramophone called his new account of the First Symphony "surprising and thrilling", and his Symphonic Dances are gripping from their diffident opening notes to the final tam-tam crash.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Instrumental
Compared favourably to such giants as Richter and Pletnev, Nikolai Lugansky surmounts the technical challenges of both formidable sets of Études-Tableaux with ease, drawing an almost orchestral sound-world from the piano.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The use of the mystical painter Nicholas Roerich's Armageddon as the cover of this album fits perfectly with Steven Osborne's exploration of the "distant voices and supernatural happenings others often miss" (BBC Music Magazine). The transcription of the Nunc Dimittis from the Vespers acts as a highly effective miniature that benefits from the added clarity of the piano's sonority - though the main events are of course the Piano Sonata No.1 and the Moments musicaux.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Seamlessly blending piano-native works with transcriptions by Volodos and Rachmaninoff himself, this recital is not short on whirling virtuosity - but it's in the more intimate moments, such as the spellbindingly delicate opening of the D major Prelude No.4 from Op.23, where Babayan really excels. The heroic, tragic climax of the B minor Prelude, Op.32 No.10, which in many performances can becomes just an exhaustingly relentless pesante, here evokes more a vast rolling ocean.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Long-time musical collaborators Capuçon and Wang play as if joined telepathically on this EP-length recording drawn from their Rachmaninoff and Brahms collaboration with Andreas Ottensamer. The Sonata clocks in at just over 34 minutes, but there's enough musicality for twice that. The opening sounds for all the world like a shy chance meeting at the outset of a romantic drama, the Allegro scherzando has a sinister buzz to it and the Andante sings freely rather than wallowing.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Choral & Song
Rachmaninoff: Vespers - All-Night Vigil
The Choir of King's College, London, Joseph Fort, Caitlin Goreing, Chris O'Leary
A performance that puts a new spin on a revered work. Deliberately eschewing the huge bowstrokes and sometimes maudlin "Slavic soul" of other accounts, this is an unashamedly "chamber" performance of Rachmaninoff's sacred masterpiece, and every movement benefits from this approach. The music is crystal-clear and fluid throughout, and Fort's relatively lively tempi help to keep some of the weightier numbers from dragging.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Rachmaninoff: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31
Raul Mikson (tenor), Olari Viikholm (bass), Maria Valdmaa (soprano) Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Kaspars Putniņš
Set against a choir of students from London - however accomplished - this Baltic account of the Liturgy might be considered the "real deal". It's certainly more the traditional Orthodox soundworld, with the more mature voices of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir lending audible warmth to every section (particularly some magnificent low alto lines).
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Justly compared to operas in miniature, Rachmaninoff's songs are emotionally intense at the best of times. Asmik Grigorian deliberately ratchets this up a notch further by choosing a programme of contrasts and inner conflicts. With a sound likened by the Financial Times to a more "pristine, athletic" variant of Vishnevskaya's, and a peerless collaborator at the piano in Lukas Geniušas, this is a debut and a half.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
When Katherine spoke to Julia Sitkovetsky a few weeks into the first of the UK's COVID-19 lockdowns, it was clear that her decision to choose Rachmaninoff for her solo debut was far from accidental - her relationship with this music runs deep, and this recital with Roger Vignoles is a wonderful vehicle for her onyx-bright voice.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
David Smith - Head of Digital
