Rachmaninoff piano concerto No. 3

[Skybird]

Some years ago I already had posted this concerto, but then it was in parts crippled and it was a three parts video at youtube. I just found out that somebody meanwhile has uploaded the full concerto in one piece, in HQ sound. Therefor I post it again, because this concerto is one of the most breathtaking, romantic, emotional pieces of music that I know of - and Martha Argerich, to quote one critic, jumped onto it and totally consumed it like an infuriated hungry Tiger.

Decembre 1982, Berlin Philharmonic Hall. The orchestra was the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin (RSO), which meanwhile has been renamed in German Symphony Orchestra (DSO) when Vladimiar Ashkenazy for some years became chief director, before Kent Nagano. The director was Riccardo Chailly. The pianist, as said, was Martha Argerich - and a VERY hungry Martha Argerich. She played like ol' devil himself, and with totally full risk, all engines 110%, warp-speed-now-scotty!

There are some recordings as fast, but weith more faults by the pianist, and less variance in tempi, volume and expression. To me, this one always has been the very best of them all.

I admit that also is because I was sitting in the audience back then.

My father played one of the bassoons, and he, like many of his collegaues back then, has marked this concerto as one of the event highlights in his career.

The critics back then were stellar, many consider this old recording as maybe the best interpretation ever of this concerto.

Record it, pump up the volume and listen, then get ready for liftoff. If this leaves you untouched and your blood not going heavy, then consider yourself to be probably dead already. This is Russian and romanticism and drama in their best meanings. I know this one inside out, and I do not know how often I have listened to it by now. Very, very often. And still it lights my candle, and sometimes it still wets my eyes in disbelief and emotional overload. It sometimes is just too much to bear, and then a security valve opens so that I must not explode in overjoy.

Hope you enjoy!

P.S.
Available on CD as well, for even better sound quality.