Rachmaninoff! (Random Reviews from the Overflow Room 1)

Rachmaninoff often gets dismissed by music snobs due to his popularity with "naive" listeners, but he was a composer of substance and character who earned his popularity by writing great music. All the rest is blather.

[@stevemcclue5759]

Thanks Dave! I'm looking forward to seeing what you've got squirreled away for Rachmaninov. He's one of my favourite composers, and I've come to admire his music more as I get older: I think when younger I was a bit in the camp of - this is gorgeous, so I shouldn't like it, but now I know better. Looking at his piano music (I can't play it, but a cat can look at a king, no?) I really admire his compositional style and how it evolves over the preludes and Etudes Tableaux. So knock yourself out, I'm here for all 15 rachmaninov vlogs.😀

[@shostakovich343]

Jed Distler once mentioned Ashkenazy/Haitink as a reference recording of No. 1 (in some review on CT), and re-visiting that recording I was very much impressed by its power. Easily the best performance in that cycle.
An ideal Ashkenazy Rachmaninov cycle would be, to my mind:
1. Haitink
2. Kondrashin
3. Ormandy (or the rather different Fistoulari)
4. Previn

[@Richard-b5r9v]

I believe Rachmaninov Symphony No 1 has that massive Gong Tam Tam at the very end of the Symphony ?