RACHMANINOV

Piano Concertos 1+2

Preludes Op. 23 No. 1, Op. 32 Nos 9, 10, 12

Sviatoslav Richter

USSR Radio-TV State Symphony Orchestra (Op.1)

Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra (Op.18)

Kurt Sanderling

Richter only performed Rachmaninov’s first two concertos before embarking on his international career in 1960. This remastered Praga Digitals bi-channel hybrid SACD presents a logical compilation of two live performances plus four 'Preludes' which were to remain his favourites for the next 50 years.

When Sviatoslav Richter first got to know Rachmaninov’s piano concertos, the composer himself had been living in exile in the United States for 20 years. The young pianist was learning the Prokofiev and Rachmaninov major scores, having studied with Heinrich Neuhaus, and before his first travel to the West (1960). His first guest appearance in the free world, in Finland, was brought about by the mediation of Ekaterina Furtseva, a confidante of Nikolai Khrushchev, minister of culture for the few months preceding his Kremlin leadership. As encores we have four Rachmaninov 'Preludes', also recorded during his first tour of North America in 1960.

A unique programme which today’s cutting edge techniques have attempted to render in all their original glory. Praga Digitals celebrate their 20th anniversary in 2012.

"I was starting from monaural broadcast tapes copies emulated by DSD processing. Results: lower noise, near original bandwith and dynamics, less inter-modulation distortion, keyboard very stable and not too large. Comparing with the old RCA or Chant du Monde CD/PCM, this new release come back to the original public performance tapes in terms of rumble (50 Hz), but clear picture, mainly for the soloist." Pierre Barbier, Praga Digitals

Praga SACD DSD350056