Credits:

Rachmaninov, Sergei (1873-1943)

Description:

Pianist Abby Simon (1920-2019), born in New York City in 1920, couples her popular No. 2 and No. 3 from the complete Rachmaninoff piano concerto cycle by Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony. Simon was able to perfectly reproduce on the piano music he heard on the radio at the age of 3. He began piano studies at age 5, studying with Josef Hoffmann at the Curtis Institute of Music. He called himself a "19th century pianist" and had a strong affinity for the works of composers such as Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev, who were also virtuoso pianists. Critics highly praised his performances, in which he avoided the use of glaring virtuosity in favor of subtlety and poetic sentiment, and Harold Schoenberg, who was known as a harsh critic, praised him as a "super virtuoso. The playing time of the two pieces recorded here is slightly shorter than the contemporary average at 31:50 and 39:36, but the smooth tempo control and exquisite singing in the No. 2 makes the music expressive without being overdone, and one does not feel "fast. On the other hand, the tempo of No. 3 is vivid and fast from the beginning. The tempo of No. 3, on the other hand, is brilliantly fast from the beginning, with a greater range of slow and fast movements than that of No. 2, and more dramatic uplift can be heard here and there. Slatkin's skillful "addition" is also impressive.One of the VOX AUDIOPHILE EDITION produced by Elite Recordings and remastered at 24bit/192kHz. Naxos Japan