Continuing the Rachmaninov
series from Australia, another first
release on CD, perhaps not as significant
as the Kletzki and Weller releases but
still worthwhile releasing to the CD-buying
public. This one provides more of Charles
Dutoit in romantic repertoire from Philadelphia
and London, supported by the engineers
delivering very good recording quality.
The Piano Concerto
No.2, the audience’s favourite of the
four, has been very well served on disc
over the years with most pianists "having
a go". As a result, the catalogue
is saturated with good, mediocre and
bad performances. At the last count,
there were well over one hundred different
performances in the catalogue, some
pianists (such as Vladimir Ashkenazy)
with at least three different versions,
and these have been released with different
couplings, making twelve different discs!
Alicia de Larrocha
is primarily known for her classical
and Spanish repertoire recordings. Here
in a relatively rare outing into the
Romantic repertoire, she gives a far
from negligible performance of the Rachmaninov
war-horse, aided and abetted by Dutoit
and the RPO.
Dutoit recorded Tchaikovsky’s
First Piano Concerto with this orchestra
some years ago with Martha Argerich.
That version was very well received
so Miss Larrocha is in good hands for
the Rachmaninov.
The main feature of
this performance is a very slow, dreamy
second, slow movement. If you like this
sort of thing (I do), then this could
be a very good purchase for you.
The coupling, also
in stunning sound, is of the composer’s
last orchestral work, the Symphonic
Dances. These were written specifically
for the orchestra on this disc and the
Philadelphia’s then conductor Eugene
Ormandy. They made a recording which
has been available before on Sony, but
in not as good sound quality.
Decca did a number
of Rachmaninov recordings with Dutoit
in Philadelphia, and this is another
of them. Although it does not have the
fire and tingling excitement of Kondrashin
with the Moscow Philharmonic on BMG-Melodiya,
it is by no means ignorable.
If this coupling attracts,
then there is no reason at all why you
should resist purchasing it, especially
given that it costs just over half the
Sony release, and there, the couplings
are not nearly as good: Offenbach’s
Gaïeté Parisienne and
three dances from The Bartered Bride.
The Symphonic Dances
are the last orchestral work in
the composer’s catalogue and is in three
movements. It has often been considered
Rachmaninov’s ‘fourth symphony’, the
only reason for this not sticking more
permanently is the fact that the form
of the work does not adhere to formal
symphonic structure.
This disc makes an
excellent companion to the other in
the month’s Rachmaninov releases from
Eloquence.
John Phillips
Alicia de Larrocha (piano) 
