what you need to know

It's either a passion or an obsession. Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto. This blog contains several versions of this famous concerto, but this concerto only; I won't be placing companion pieces from the same discs. As always, support the music industry. I'm placing mostly recordings that are or have been commercially available, avoiding radio or TV broadcasts. If you like the piece you should buy it. If you don't then delete it. All in mp3 format, mostly 192kbps.

Thursday 12 January 2012

Alexander Toradze


Piano: Alexander Toradze
Conductor: Edo de Waart
Orchestra: Minnesota Orchestra
Available here: click me
Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis, 28 January 1993 (live performance). Thank you to Serge!

Alexander Toradze's kamikaze attack on the Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto could be taken several ways: striking individualism or vulgar self-promotion; virtuoso power or tasteless athletics. Whipping up crowd excitement is a gift every politician owns or envies. But people who cherish the underlying nobility of this extravagant piece may have looked past the visceral persuasiveness of Mr. Toradze's playing and found the demagoguery behind it. This is a career that began with great fanfare a decade or so ago and since has faded drastically. In the long run, the public gets it right. (New York Times, 9 Feb 1993)
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