# The Complete Rachmaninoff Sergei Rachmaninoff, Pianist **URL:** **By** Roy A. Childs, Jr. **Published:** May 1, 1974 --- “But more concretely, taking the best of the best, so to speak, there is a view of the Chopin "Funeral March" Sonata which is stunning in its originality—the funeral march itself comes alive as in no other recording.” One of the happiest events in the history of recordings is now upon us, with the release by RCA this season of the complete recordings of a brilliant composer and an even greater pianist: Sergei Rachmaninoff. Released to honor the 100th anniversary of Rachmaninoff's birth, this fifteen-record set contains all of Rachmaninoff's recordings as a performer and as a conductor, from 1919 to his death in 1943. The span of these recordings is tremendous: for the first time in musical history, we have definitive recorded performances of much of a composer's own music, by the composer himself. All of the four piano concertos are here, in relatively good monophonic sound, plus the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, a huge selection of his more obscure piano music, some of the Etudes-tableau, a generous number of his preludes (including three different recordings of his Prelude in C-Sharp Minor), plus Rachmaninoff himself conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra in brilliant readings of his own Isle of the Dead, Vocalise and the Symphony Number Three. But that's just a start, for Rachmaninoff—regarded by many as the greatest pianist in history—was an equally brilliant interpreter of the works of other composers. Thus we find works by Liszt, including a Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 with Rachmaninoff's own cadenza, works by Chopin, Beethoven, Bach, Paderewski, Mendelssohn, Moszkowsky, Moussorgsky, Borodin, Bizet, Schubert, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Scriabin, his mentor Tchaikovsky and many others. To be blunt about it, we have a veritable Romantic feast, for Rachmaninoff was one of the last of the great Romantic pianists; this means that his interpretations often took surprising liberties with the printed text, that his interpretations are often of shocking originality. What are the highlights of this set? I am tempted to point to all fifteen records and let it go at that. But more concretely, taking the best of the best, so to speak, there is a view of the Chopin "Funeral March" Sonata which is stunning in its originality—the funeral march itself comes alive as in no other recording. His reading of the Schumann Carnaval has been hailed, justly, as one of the landmarks of recorded music. Then there are his versions of the Chopin Ballade in A-Flat, some of the Nocturnes, the Scherzo in C-Sharp Minor, Waltzes, the brilliant Borodin Scherzo in A-Flat, the Sgambati transcription of a beautifully melodic work by Gluck, Rachmaninoff's own transcriptions of works by Mendelssohn, Kreisler and Saint-Saëns... well, over a hundred recordings in all. But the greatest of all are Rachmaninoff's own recordings of his concertos and the Rhapsody. I know of nothing equal to them, particularly his recording of his own Second Concerto, which is so great that I can barely listen to another version; the usual yearning melancholy gives way to a dancing gaiety—the concerto suddenly takes on more of the characteristics of the Third Concerto; the conventional heavy-handedness is altogether missing with his concept of the work. All in all, this is one of the greatest services to music ever performed by RCA. You must understand what this is: it is a capturing of Rachmaninoff's consciousness in permanent form, of the way he conceived of music, including his own. The breathtaking vitality of these recordings, the dancelike tempos, the unusual liberties taken with the texts! He has taken some of the great works of world art and carved them to suit his own style—the style, remember, which created so much great and beautiful music of its own. There is nothing like it on records: a totally unique personality, another era altogether preserved for posterity, the brilliance of a personality which grew up in 19th century before the Czars and made America his own country. No one who loves music can possibly pass up this collector's item. John Pfeiffer and Gregor Benko, who have together made this project possible, deserve the greatest possible thanks. Music—and all of us who worship it—are in their debts. _Reviewed by R. A. CHILDS, Jr./ Classical Recordings (5 volumes, 15 records) / BFL Price $75 (List Price $89)_