About this release
Here is the most complete collection of Rachmaninov's output ever assembled on disc: from the piano concertos and preludes of worldwide affection and esteem to his many songs and three operas, which are far less known but reveal the heart and soul of their creator, as a Russian first and foremost, whose attachment to his mother country never diminished in decades of homesick exile.
The performers on this set are drawn from both sides of that divide: Earl Wild plays the piano concertos, while the equally maverick conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky masterminds the symphonies.
The Borodin Trio plays the two impassioned piano trios, while another American virtuoso, Garrick Ohlsson, tackles the many transcriptions that the composer made of Chopin, Bach and others, with the major piano works (the sonatas, preludes and Études-tableaux) played by Santiago Rodriguez and Nikolai Lugansky.
There are also new recordings of early piano pieces made especially for this set and not previously released, and three discs of 'historic' performances. These feature a selection of piano concertos and solo works played by some of the great Rachmaninov pianists of the past: Emil Gilels, Vladimir Horowitz, Sviatoslav Richter and, inevitably, the composer himself, whom many still consider to be the finest exponent of his own works. The set is completed by an extended introduction to the composer and his work by the Rachmaninov authority Julian Haylock on a bonus CD-ROM.
- US market has a special 28-CD version of this box, 9071, from which the last three CDs of historical recordings are excluded for copyright reasons