Best CD of Rachmaninoff's Third Piano C


I would like to purchase a CD of Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto and am asking for suggestions. Joel
joeldoss

Showing 2 responses by mahler123

I haven’t heard to many new recordings over the last 15 years or so.
The first criteria should be, which cadenza?  Rach wrote a short and a longer one.  For me the longer, stormer one is essential, the emotional heart of the piece.  The famous Horowitz recording actually uses the shorter one.  My favorite was made about the same time as the Horowitz/Ormandy, with Azhkenazy/Ormandy and the Philadelphians.  For the shorter cadenza, try Earl Wild/Jascha Horenstein and the Royal Philharmonic, also an audiophile recording 
Interesting about the Ann Arbor connection.  I heard Horowitz and Ormandy/Philly do the piece in the late seventies at the May Festival, which was Horowitz second concert after a long retirement; the first was the Concert in New York from which the recording was made.