Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 4
Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 4
The Gramophone Choice
Coupled with Ravel Piano Concerto in G
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli pf Philharmonia Orchestra / Ettore Gracis
EMI Great Recordings of the Century 567238-2 (47' · ADD). Recorded 1957. Buy from Amazon
In crude and subjective terms Michelangeli makes the spine tingle in a way no others can approach. How does he do it? This is the secret every pianist would love to know, and which no writer can ever pin down. But it’s possible to give some general indications. It isn’t a question of technique, at least not directly, because Ashkenazy, for example, can match their most virtuoso feats; indirectly, yes, it’s relevant, in that there are dimensions in Michelangeli’s pianism which allow musical conceptions to materialise which might not dawn on others. Nor is it a question of structure, in the narrow sense of the awareness of overall proportions, judicious shaping of paragraphs, continuity of thought, but the way structure is projected and the way it’s transmuted into emotional drama; these things are critical.
In one way or another most of the recordings in this section respond vividly to the excitement of Rachmaninov’s dramatic climaxes but with Michelangeli these climaxes seem to burst through the music of their own volition, as though an irresistible force of nature has been released. It’s this crowning of a structure by release, rather than by extra pressure, which gives the performance a sense of exaltation and which more than anything else sets it on a different level. It enables him to be freer in many details, yet seem more inevitable as a whole.
The impact of all this would be negligible without a sympathetically attuned conductor and orchestra. Fortunately that’s exactly what Michelangeli has. Michelangeli’s Ravel is open to criticism, partly because many listeners feel uncomfortable with his persistent left-before-right mannerism in the slow movement and with his unwarranted textual tinkerings (like changing the last note). But he’s as finely attuned to this aloof idiom as to its temperamental opposite in the Rachmaninov.
And although the recording can’t entirely belie its vintage, it does justice to one of the finest concerto records ever made.
Additional Recommendations
Coupled with Floods of Spring, Op 14 No 11. Medtner Piano Concerto No 2 in C minor, Op 50a
Yevgeny Sudbin pf North Carolina Symphony Orchestra / Grant Llewellyn
BIS BIS-SACD1728 (74’ · DDD) Buy from Amazon
This richly enterprising programme couples Rachmaninov’s 1926 version of his Fourth Piano Concerto with Medtner’s Second, works which both composers lovingly dedicated to each other. For good measure Sudbin adds his own transcription of Rachmaninov’s ‘Floods of Spring’, to say nothing of lively accompanying notes. By 1941 Rachmaninov presented a drastically pruned version of his Fourth Concerto, reducing it by 192 bars, and it is this version, much to Sudbin’s chagrin, that is generally played today. But here he makes a strong case for Rachmaninov’s early length and elaboration both verbally and in playing which captures a special sense of the chill wind that blows across its surface, the fast fading of the emotional warmth of the first three concertos. Here, former sweetness is very much on the turn and there are many moments when this dazzling and unsettling work sounds like a parody of Rachmaninov’s first rhetoric and grandiloquence. Sudbin’s relatively low-key playing never leaves you in doubt of his musicianship and dexterity. For him, both Rachmaninov and Medtner are too serious for overt display, so that even when you miss the brilliance of a Michelangeli or a Demidenko you may well warm to a gentler, more accommodating view. Sudbin’s poetic quality shines through every bar of his encore. BIS’s sound and balance emphasise their pianist’s reserve and occasional self-effacement.
