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Discussion: Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3 - Scherbakov

Posts: 2

Post by Luukas January 15, 2015 (1 of 2)
Excellent recording from Scherbakov. I heard his interpretations of Tchaikovsky's First and Third Piano Concertos, and I was thrilled. What do you think?

Post by Chris from Lafayette January 15, 2015 (2 of 2)
Luukas said:

Excellent recording from Scherbakov. I heard his interpretations of Tchaikovsky's First and Third Piano Concertos, and I was thrilled. What do you think?

Hi, Luukas - I still have my DVD-Audio disc of the Tchaikovsky performances - the masters are 24/48 PCM. I like them - particularly the Third Concerto with the Tanayev completion. In the First Concerto however, I feel there are just too many other outstanding performances (Argerich, Janis, Wild - Lord knows how many others!) which maintain that extra bit of edge and excitement that I miss with Scherbakov, who ultimately sounds just a tiny bit too comfortable IMHO.

I feel the same way about the Rachmaninoff Second and Third Concertos with Scherbakov, which I used to have on a DVD-Audio disc - with very good performances again just a bit too comfortable for my taste compared to others (Richter, Janis, Wild, Zimerman, Yuja - despite very artificial SQ, Lugansky and others in the Second; Janis - despite cuts, Argerich, Yuja - again despite artificial SQ, Nakamatsu - similar approach to Scherbakov but better realized IMHO*, Lugansky, and others in the Third - I also confess to finding the Hough performances of both concertos, which some listeners condemn for being too rushed, very interesting and attractive).

Overall, I think Scherbakov is a tremendous pianist, as in his recordings of Johann Strauss transcriptions and paraphrases on EMI, his Scarlatti CD on Naxos, what I've heard of his Godowsky series on Marco Polo and Naxos, and, most spectacularly of all, his Liapunov Transcendental Etudes on Marco Polo (what an incredible recording!). Perhaps his Tchaikovsky Third Concerto belongs in this category too.

*you might want to take this with a grain of salt, since I've been Jon's piano accompanist since he was 9 years old - he's in his mid-40's now!

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