He was one of the greatest composer-pianists in history and certainly
the greatest in the 20th century. His piano teachers included Nikolai
Zverov (1832-93) and Alexander Siloti (1863-1945), the latter being
Rachmaninov's cousin and a Liszt pupil. Before the 1917 Revolution,
he spent most of his energy composing and a majority of his masterpieces
(e.g. the first three piano concertos, 24 Preludes, 17 Etudes-tableaux,
Symphony No.2, etc.) were composed during this period. After the Revolution
he left Russia and went to the United States, where he began to concentrate
on his piano and conducting careers (Don't miss his amazing orchestral
recordings of his own 3rd symphony and Isle of the Dead). He made his
earliest commercial recordings in 1919 and continued to do so until
nearly the end of his life. Rachmaninov's complete recordings is available
as a 10-CD RCA Gold Seal boxed set.
Rachmaninov was a master of purity, not only in terms of hitting all
notes accurately, but also in terms of his style. If you compare his
recordings with his contemporaries', such as Ignacy Paderewski, Vladimir
de Pachmann, Arthur de Greef, Ignaz Friedman, Josef Hofmann, etc., you
will realize that his style is surprisingly modern.
He played with a beautiful singing tone.
However, he never purposely enriched or thickened the tone as much as
Hofmann or Horowitz did. He used a flowing tempo that was never too
fast, with rare exceptions like the super fast octaves in the Chopin
Scherzo 3. He did not try to impress the listeners with exaggerated
dynamics and emotional display, or with fast tempi or extreme volumes.
His playing had feeling but was never sentimental. He conquered his
audience by his subtlety, sublimity and perfect technical control.
Rachmaninov played with an analytical mind. He always looked for the
deepest meaning of a piece.
The most important recordings he made are those of his own works, including
the 4 concertos, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, 3 Etudes-tableaux,
8 Preludes, and numerous miniature pieces for the solo piano. Arthur
Schnabel, the Beethoven specialist, once heard Rachmaninov play a Beethoven
sonata and exclaimed that it was the best Beethoven performance he had
ever heard. It is unfortunate that Rachmaninov never recorded a single
Beethoven piano sonata. Indeed, he recorded few large-scale compositions.
For chamber music, he recorded Beethoven's Sonata for Violin and Piano
No.8, as well as Schubert's D.574 and Grieg's Op.45, all with the great
violinist Fritz Kreisler. These recordings reveal Rachmaninov as a fine
accompanist.
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