Best recording Rachmaninov Piano Concerto 4

Unquestionably the `performance-wise it will be the performance from 1957 by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli with Philarmonia Orchestrea under Gracis. Michelangeli “owns” this peace and from my prospective no one before or after was not able to approach to what Michelangeli did with this work. The Rachmanonoff’s own performance of his IV concerto defiantly must be considered as well but I really do not see people who interested in Rachmanonoff and who did not started (and perhaps ended) with his own presentation.

The Michelangeli’s performance is widely available on LP and CD. Most of the issues are terminally destroyed by the barbarians who did re-mastering. As far as I remember the Tokyo’s EMI office did the most interesting (less damaging) transfer of this work to CD. In the analog world there are a great number of the pressings and all of them very different. Fortunate the “audiophile’s price hiters” did not listen serious music and they did not put this performance in their dummy “records to die for“ list. Because of this the re-sellers price the Michelangeli’s Rachmanonoff IV very inexpensive.

I do not have access to my records now and I can’t tell you witch pressing is better. Start to buy them and you will hit the best one. When you do then put this record in your will for your offsprings. I doubt that any other (future) paints will be able to go further then Michelangeli did

Rgs,
Romy the Cat

If you listen to the 78's of rachmaninoff playing on a victrola, you will understand. His lucid, liquid, free genius surrounds and penetrates. He really is one that doesn't transfer well to digital.

The recording by Michelangeli with the Ravel and Rach 4; it is the Ravel Concerto that the Penguin guide is praising, not the Rachmaninov. It is worth getting for the Ravel for sure.

Yes the Michelangeli/EMI (Great Recordings) is probably first choice, the CD remaster by EMI using ART technology is very good. The Ravel coupling may not be what most people want however.

The Wild/Chesky would make a good 2nd choice as well as offering Rach. piano 1 as a coupling.

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.

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.

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

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).

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.