Rachmaninov Rarities

Legendary Russian pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy is considered the pre-eminent interpreter of Rachmaninov’s music, and as he marked his seventy-fifth birthday (6 July 2012), he recorded a final album of the composer’s music featuring the Seven Pieces (Moments Musicaux) Op.10, three Nocturnes, and ten shorter early works, including an unpublished Song without Words. March 2013 sees Vladimir Ashkenazy’s fiftieth anniversary as an exclusive Decca Classics artist. To mark this remarkable milestone, a limited-edition original jackets 50-CD Ashkenazy-Rachmaninov collection will celebrate a unique career that began in March 1963, with the classic recording of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.3 with the LSO under Anatole Fistoulari. Composer: Sergei Rachmaninov Performer: Vladimir Ashkenazy Reviews: Few pianists can rival Vladimir Ashkenazy for his wide-ranging repertoire, and he is second to none in the depth of his coverage of the music of Sergey Rachmaninov, which he has served up many times over the five decades he has recorded for Decca. This 2013 album completes his recordings of Rachmaninovs oeuvre, and as the culminating collection of the solo piano music, it presents minor pieces that rarely have been recorded and, in some cases, have been hidden from view since the composers lifetime. The Morceaux de salon, Op. 10, are the most frequently played, but the majority of pieces here date from Rachmaninovs youth, or were sketches he never published. While the Piano Piece in A flat major would be unknown but for Ashkenazys acuity in copying it down from the sketch he found in the Library of Congress, and the Song without Words being retrieved from a facsimile in Oskar von Reisemanns biography, the remaining juvenilia and student works have been published. Even Ashkenazys two premiere recordings of Noch pechalna, Op. 26/12, and the Nunc dimittis from the All-Night Vigil are merely the pianists own arrangements, so the sense of discovery is limited. All the same, Ashkenazy performs a service to Rachmaninovs memory by rescuing these minor gems, and fans will be interested to hear them, if not necessarily bowled over by them.