Listened to with half an ear, this might
seem a reasonable enough proposition.
The performances are fluent, with plenty
of stamina and the right sort of romantic
surge, except for no.3 which struck
me from the first as a hum-drum, disengaged
affair. Moreover, Bryden Thomson’s Baxian
credentials ensure that plenty of dark,
"dangerous" sounds emanate
from the orchestra.
When you start looking
into the details of works which have
been recorded by myriads of great pianists,
these performances are really neither
here nor there. Observance of dynamics
is one problem. Rachmaninov’s careful
gradation of dynamics in the faster
variations of the Paganini Rhapsody,
nos.8 and 9 for example, are ironed
out into a generalized forte, and even
in the famous 18th variation
no one would guess from this performance
that the left hand triplets at the beginning
are marked pianissimo, the first five
notes of the theme are mezzo forte,
the next four answer with a piano, then
mezzo forte again. Then, when the strings
come in and the piano has big triplet
chords, Shelley gives exactly the same
weight to the chords which outline the
theme (and are accented by the composer)
and those which simply go up the same
chord. The result is a heavy pounding
which may sound superficially impressive
until you put it alongside a performance
like the composer’s own which effortlessly
reveals why he wrote in all these
markings and what he meant by them.
If you continue with Rachmaninov’s performance
you will also note that he saw no reason
to end this variation with a lengthy
ritardando (if he had, he would have
marked it in).
Another question is
that of Rachmaninov’s multi-voiced contrapuntal
writing. When the piano takes up the
first lyrical theme of concerto no.1,
its melody is soon duetting with the
violas and bassoon. The idea is presumably
that the piano melody soars above the
texture, with the violas and bassoon
not far behind, while the piano’s sixteenth
notes (divided between the hands) wrap
a delicate tracery around them. In this
performance, the melody is not sufficiently
separated (in colouring and dynamics)
from the sixteenth notes to stand out,
and the casual listener might suppose
the principal melody to be that of the
violas and bassoon. Described on paper
this may sound a niggling point, but
it actually amounts to misrepresentation
of the music, and even the least technically
informed listener is going to find that
some famous tunes in concerto no.2 have
acquired an extra note or two. These
are notes from the accompanying texture
which are played with the same weight
as the melody and thus sound a part
of it.
These multi-tiered
textures are a particular characteristic
of the earlier concertos and are almost
wholly absent from the more solidly
chordal no.4, which is perhaps the most
successful performance here, at least
in the outer movements. The tempo chosen
for the middle movement is too slow,
however, and makes the music seem laboured.
On the face of it, this interpretation
of Rachmaninov’s "Largo" marking
might seem more correct than Michelangeli’s,
which verges on the Andante; but Michelangeli’s
tempo proves virtually identical to
Rachmaninov’s own. Evidently both he
and Michelangeli realised that the music
would become heavy at a real Largo pace.
So no recommendation
here, I’m afraid. I did not join in
the popular acclamation of Stephen Hough’s
Hyperion cycle but gave a recommendation
to Igor Marshev on Danacord provided
you are ready to accept broad tempi
throughout. Rachmaninov himself is obviously
hors concours but you won’t want
to have such old recordings - good as
they are for their date - as your only
versions. For better or worse, some
of the finest performances have been
set down by pianists who didn’t record
the whole cycle, headed by the incredible,
unbeatable Michelangeli no.4. A Richter
version of no.2 is indispensable - he
also recorded no.1, which I haven’t
heard - with Edith Farnadi not far behind;
will her Westminster recordings ever
be reissued? Horowitz in no.3 cannot
be ignored, but there are too many snags
in all his versions to make them your
only one. The Ashkenazy/Ormandy no.3
shows the pianist at his absolute peak.
Christopher Howell
Howard Shelley (piano) 
