Best recording Rachmaninov Piano Concerto 4

I would probably go with the Ashkenazy/Previn.

Also get the complete cycle played by Rachmaninov himself if you don't already have it. Obviously sonically poor (1930s vintage), but well worth the listen for interpretation. Can't beat the original source.

Another nice performance with a different perspective on the work is the Wild/Horenstein performance. An RCA recording (my copy is GL 25293) reissued by Chesky (CR 41).

Michelangeli on EMI ASD 255. This was repressed in recent years by Testament.

Concertos 1 and 4 are the ones i most listen to. #1 has so much Russian soul, and 4 has powerful piano passages with beautiful orchestral composition. The above 3 are all great performances. With the Michelangeli you also get the best performance of the Ravel concerto. The Ashkenazy/Previn is the one to get vs the Ashkanazy/Heintik. Rachmaninov on the piano shows very technical playing with poetical nuances.

With EMI Classics "Great Recordings of the Century" series you get not only Michelangeli's performance of Rach 4, which Penguin CD guide calls "one of the most brilliant piano records ever made", but you also get the Ravel Piano Concerto in G. This piece has an Adagio assai that is "one of the most touching melodies to come from the human heart." Marguerite Long. In this movement Michelangeli "achieves a sonority and expressive range that is simply without equal." Classical Music on CD: The Rough Guide. Michelangeli's atmospheric and technically brilliant performance of one of the most hauntingly beautiful adagios makes this a no brainer.