"Not quite savage enough" is just about right, HS - the Prokofiev 3 was well played but lacked a little rhythmic tautness and punch in the biggest moments...
After the concert I listened to Ogawa/Arwel Hughes in the usual (revised) version of Rachmaninov's 4th Concerto, and Sudbin/Llewellyn in the rarely heard, very different original - the latter's finale is more convincing as a continuous structure, but can seem dauntingly complex in its developments from the motto and other themes from previous movements - and it seems to change course almost too frequently, like a flock of starlings trying to settle in their winter roost. But it needs to be known, and should be played much more often! Only then can you truly attempt a necessarily provisional judgement.
The familiar version is much easier to grasp, but does sound disjointed on account of the cuts (Brucknerians will think of that awful, structural spatchcock which is the 1889 3rd...); remember how nervous Rachmaninov could be about this - his great 2nd Symphony suffered from "conductors' editions" for many years, and as for his 1st...
I tend to think that the 4th Concerto - a difficult piece in any guise, though Michelangeli, Gracis and the Philharmonia do indeed triumph within it, or over it - was a necessary stopover on the way to the true masterpiece of the Paganini Rhapsody, just as the wonderful Symphonic Dances were the great "4th Symphony" that the awkward, uneven 3rd Symphony prepared the way for.
(Apoloogies to HS for the amateur's musicology...)
After the concert I listened to Ogawa/Arwel Hughes in the usual (revised) version of Rachmaninov's 4th Concerto, and Sudbin/Llewellyn in the rarely heard, very different original - the latter's finale is more convincing as a continuous structure, but can seem dauntingly complex in its developments from the motto and other themes from previous movements - and it seems to change course almost too frequently, like a flock of starlings trying to settle in their winter roost. But it needs to be known, and should be played much more often! Only then can you truly attempt a necessarily provisional judgement.
The familiar version is much easier to grasp, but does sound disjointed on account of the cuts (Brucknerians will think of that awful, structural spatchcock which is the 1889 3rd...); remember how nervous Rachmaninov could be about this - his great 2nd Symphony suffered from "conductors' editions" for many years, and as for his 1st...
I tend to think that the 4th Concerto - a difficult piece in any guise, though Michelangeli, Gracis and the Philharmonia do indeed triumph within it, or over it - was a necessary stopover on the way to the true masterpiece of the Paganini Rhapsody, just as the wonderful Symphonic Dances were the great "4th Symphony" that the awkward, uneven 3rd Symphony prepared the way for.
(Apoloogies to HS for the amateur's musicology...)
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