Sergei Rachmaninoff:
Piano Concerto #1
Piano Concerto #2 *
Prelude, Op. 23 #1
Prelude, Op. 32 #9
Prelude, Op. 32 #10
Prelude, Op. 32 #12 Sviatoslav Richter, piano
USSR Radio and TV State Symphony Orchestra/Kurt Sanderling
* Leningrad Symphonic Orchestra/Kurt Sanderling
Praga Digitals SACD PRD350056 Hybrid Stereo
Historic Rachmaninoff
In spite of his gigantic recorded legacy Sviatoslav Richter left us relatively little Rachmaninoff. Of the famous concertos he only recorded the First and Second, and not even that many times. Hearing these Russian live documents from the 1950’s again, reissued by the Czech label Praga Digitals (the first in yet another “Richter Edition”), can but increase our regrets he didn’t return to them more often. Read the full review on Classical Net
Unlike the Tchaikovsky ballets there is little chance that Raymonda will mean much to outsiders. Alexander Glazunov’s first ballet, created as a 3-act production at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1898 and performed by companies around the world to this day, remains nonetheless one of the finest scores in the genre. In many ways, Raymonda was continuing the trend set by Tchaikovsky, upscaling ballet music to an unsuspected level of sophistication and art, and making an essential contribution to the apotheosis of Russian Imperial Ballet at the close of the 19th century. Read the full review on Classical Net
I used mostly my ears 