Given that the swish and fuzz of 78s are such an obvious turn-off for so many listeners, and that Rachmaninov’s acoustic recordings can never yield the fullness and immediacy of his Ampico piano-rolls, this Telarc venture has a lot going for it. And Wayne Stahnke has lavished on it all the ingenuity available to modern technology, ensuring that instrument, acoustic and recording quality are all optimized.
So how come RC was so damning in his review of the first volume (1/99)? Well, I can hardly put the case against the whole project better than he did: ‘the fact remains that the fastidious (though spontaneous) timing, huge range of colour, lightning reflexes and tonal weight that characterize Rachmaninov’s best playing are barely hinted at, and then only in a sort of squeaky-clean caricature … It is as if a grand old palace has been demolished and a modern tower-block erected in its place.’Actually I do find that Rachmaninov’s nuances are rather more than hinted at. There is a nobility to the Bach Sarabande, an idiomatic relish to the Chopin waltzes, a charm to most of the salon pieces, that really do convey to me the presence of a great artist. Where the playing seems most questionable – the clipped superficiality of the Schubert Impromptu, the mannered hesitations in the Mendelssohn Spinning Song – precisely the same things can be heard on Rachmaninov’s acoustic recordings.
Yet there is still something unbelievable about the whole thing. And I mean something more than just the psychological effect of knowing that the performer is not physically ‘there’ (though of course that may contribute). There are subtle but crucial acoustic absences: of the percussion of finger against key, of tiny intakes of breath, of minute human imperfections in passagework, of those adjustments all pianists make to a specific instrument and acoustic. Such things may be virtually subliminal, but so are the features that distinguish the human face from computer-generated images.
So in the final analysis, like RC, I feel that the thrill of the full-blown modern sound comes cheap. But to anyone who finds the alternative too unpalatable, this may still be a valuable way to experience some of the most distinguished pianism ever recorded.'