Dimitris Sgouros plays Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 3 op 30 (EMI)

One Response

1. C. Renner :

   (August 5th, 2010)

   Rating

   First off, Dmitris Sgouros account of the Rach 3 is excellent. It’s one of the best out there. He also chooses the longer and more difficult “Ossia” cadenza. The CD transfer, however, is flawed on several accounts. The most significant flaw is a tape editing glitch in the final movement. Granted, there is only a couple seconds of music missing, but it is very noticeable. I had the LP prior to obtaining the CD. This technical glitch was not present in the LP. Another problem is the CD length. This CD only has the Rach 3 and is only a little more than 40 minutes long. Today, the Rach 3 is almost always paired with other work(s) by Rachmaninov. Yet another problem is the arrangement of tracks. This CD was made during the time when indexes were popular. Now, you’d be hard pressed to find a CD player that supports indexes. The second and third movements share the same track (track 2) and are separated only by indexes. This means that if you want to listen to just the last movement and your player doesn’t support indexing, then you must FF through the entire second movement until you get to the last movement. Lastly, the recording sounds pretty dated by today’s recording standards. There’s a long list of other great artists covering the Rach 3. Today, I’d invest my money in one of those recordings as opposed to this one unless I was a die-hard fan of Sgouros.

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