Rachmaninoff Conc 2 Mercury Living Presence

I have always been partial to the Earl Wild series. Issued by Quintessence in the US, but based upon original British EMI and perhaps even Angel recordings, if memory serves. Chesky Records also re-mastered the same on their label. Absolutely masterful.

Jdaniel13 makes some educated points in his comparisons. to me, the Rubinstein version is, indeed, very nice. I will place a finer point on my reasons for preferring Wild: Rubinstein's performance/style is worthy of teaching to a graduate level class of piano musicians. Wild is the guest musician who shows up to class, places the class textbook in the trash and demonstrates to the students what is possible years beyond graduation, after they have created some of their own rules! All kidding aside, this is some of my most favorite music, and all of the named performances are noteworthy. To me, Wild/Horenstein capture both the full romanticism and the full energy of my senses better than the rest. In other words, more goose bumps. Thanks for raising the topic for discussion.

Hey, Jdaniel, I just wanted to have a bit of fun with this one, as I rarely post here. I think we are not that far apart. I cut my teeth on the Wild performance, and that must have a lot to do with it. He does seem to rush in parts and take a few liberties, but after we hear Rachmaninov himself, all is forgiven. One of my buddies said: 'God, if I could only play like that for five minutes, they could cut my hands off, and I would be OK!' Poetically speaking, I agree! BTW, another discussion board favored the Lugansky version. I had not heard it before, but it was very elegantly played, and by quite a young man. Those concertos allow quite a heavy hand on the keyboard, and I do prefer a heavier hand than Lugansky's style. Horowitz also was quite good on #3. Thanks again for the opinions.