Rachmaninov Plays and Conducts, Vol.4

That's how we were taught to play in Russia: Rubinstein used to give his historic recitals in Petersburg and Moscow. He used to appear on the stage and say:Every note from Chopin is pure gold. Listen!" And he played and we listened. S.Rachmaninov (from A.J. and E. Swan Memoirs) Throughout his Chopin recordings one feels Rachmaninov's articulation and rhythm as indissoluble components of his true greatness in the repertoire. Indeed colouristically and textually he is fascinating - try the A minor Mazurka - even when he is at his most capricious and the locus classicus of that is his 1930 recording of the B flat minor Sonata. Here he extends the finale in a way not sanctioned - shall we say - by Chopin but the result is one of uplifting power, with Rachmaninov sculpting waves of impetus and not an undifferentiated mf all the way through. For all its recasting his performance of the sonata embraces all its moods, all its power and all its romance. -- Jonathan Woolf