If you’re looking for Rachmaninov’s Études-Tableaux in solid, professional, stylish, and inexpensive performances, this disc serves your needs well. And on occasion, pianist Vladimir Ovchinnikov rises to the music’s inspired heights. Note his blazing scales and dynamic force in the C-sharp minor Op. 33 No. 9, and his patient, lyrical unfolding of the gorgeous G minor Op. 33 No. 8, with its final measures paying wistful tribute to the conclusion of Chopin’s G minor Ballade. The C minor Op. 39 No. 1’s swirling patterns have plenty of room to breathe while remaining resolutely agitato.
However, some listeners will find Ovchinnikov’s deliberately paced and heavily inflected F-sharp minor Op. 39 No. 3 too soft-grained and rhythmically slack next to the orchestra-like propulsion of Richter or Gavrilov. Personally, I prefer the higher imaginative plane and coloristic range of Hélène Grimaud’s Op. 33 for Denon (reissued by Brilliant Classics) and Ashkenazy’s sweep and security in Op. 39 (his excellent 1988 Decca recording deserves reissue). For both opus numbers on one disc, John Ogdon’s dazzling 1971 EMI set, reissued on Testament, remains first choice.
