This anthology was recorded in Villa Senar, Rachmaninov’s family home near Lucerne, on the composer’s own Steinway. The program celebrates the legendary composer/pianist in his working concert repertoire. Mikhail Pletnev clearly overindulges at this party, and then some! He deploys his remarkable technique to self-serving ends, spray painting Beethoven’s “Les Adieux” Sonata, Mendelssohn’s Andante & Rondo Capriccioso, and Rachmaninov’s Corelli Variations with interpretive graffiti that either obscures or trivializes the composers’ intentions. Like Arturo Michelangeli, Pletnev can’t be bothered with the transitional bars linking Chopin’s Andante Spianato to its Grande Polonaise. The concluding selections from Rachmaninov’s Etudes-Tableaux, however, are dispatched with astounding control and deep musicality. If Deutsche Grammophon issues the latter as a CD single, I’ll buy it. The remainder, however, makes me feel dirty all over.
