Here’s what amounts to an uneven Rachmaninov concerto cycle cobbled together from previously available releases on labels such as ASV and Nimbus. Nikolai Luganski’s idiomatic pianism and Ivan Shpiller’s alert accompaniments serve the Third and Fourth concertos well, despite the G minor’s sluggish and square opening movement. If you don’t mind a pianist whose dynamic range primarily falls between less-loud and louder, Jorge Luis Prats’ forthright fingerwork in the Second Concerto and Paganini Rhapsody will hold appeal. John Lill commands the early First Concerto’s reams of notes well enough, even though other pianists bring greater daring, energy, flair, suppleness, and tonal variety to this score (Wild, Kocsis, Hough, and Ashkenazy, to name a few favorites). In all, these performances don’t do the music injustice, but they hardly rank among the catalog’s top contenders. Shell out a little more money for the Kocsis/De Waart two-fer bargain (Philips) or Biret/Wit (Naxos)–or better still, bite the full-price bullet and invest in the dazzling Hough/Litton Rachmaninov cycle (Hyperion).
