BaL 9.01.21 - Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto no. 3 in D minor

[Alison]

Have to say I much prefer the big chordal cadenza, with Pletnev just about my favourite account. Cuts elsewhere in his performance rule it out for a library version.

https://youtu.be/Ik-wpo-qIsM

[BBMmk2]

Oh I have a few of this mighty work. Argerich/Chailly, Ashkenazy/Previn, Rudy/Jansons. Off the top of my head. My favourite has to be Argerich though. I have others.

[ostuni]

I remember hugely enjoying the Argerich/Chailly recording when I first heard it, many years ago. When I started my detailed listening last week (see #80), I listened again; my conclusion was that it would have been truly thrilling as a live concert, but Argerich's rushing ahead of the orchestra (especially in the finale) made it too uncomfortable for repeated listening: once you've seen those moments of untogetherness when following a score, you can’t unhear them. Well, that’s how it works for me, anyway - evidently for David Fanning, and many others, it doesn’t!

I feel much the same as does DON, mentioned towards the beginning of his review, about pianists slowing down too much for the 'big moments': like him, this has made me discard the several Ashkenazy versions - though again, these have many fans. But I think one thing that had rather put me off Rach 3 as a piece was that I had the feeling that it had a tendency to drag on too much. But DON's review encouraged me to listen properly to Kocsis's version (no hanging around here!), and those other versions (Andsnes, Shelley) in my #80: these versions have helped me to really enjoy the piece at last.