Review by audio-grubi April 18, 2008 (12 of 17 found this review helpful)
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Sometimes I really can't understand, what some users write here. The best examples are the reviews of "gonzostick" and "Gabriel". I never readed such a s**t here before! I totaly disagree! I LOVE this recording and and I'm glad, that I have NOT heard one more time on the opinion of other users here on SA-CD.net and nevertheless bought me the relevant recording. In my opinion the interpretations of the two piano concertos are not as bad as the both named users wrote here before and about the sound of the recordings: "gonzostick" and "Gabriel" shold check their HiFi-(or LoFi- ?)equipment very fast! Balance Engineer Prof. Rainer Maillard of the Deutsche Grammophon reached it once again to produce a very well sounding recording with this SACD (stereo/mch: PCM, 24 bit/48 kHz - the Deutsche Grammophon is one of the few companies, that always declares, in which format the original recording originated! - and once again we see, that that PCM [and consequently DVD-Audio in reality] is inside, what sold as DSD ...). The sound-panorama is very warm, wide and the piano is well focused. That's simply wonderfull and a relief for the ears! Many lables and technicans should take it as an example.
Just listen and trust your ears but not (all) reviews of self appointed "experts"!
Highly recommendation!
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Review by gonzostick August 28, 2004 (9 of 22 found this review helpful)
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Performance: Sonics: |
AWFUL!!! Stay away from this Turkey! Sonics are murky and balances, especially beween soloist and orchestra, provide little piano (which may be a blessing). Worse still, the Rachmaninoff is cut in the last movement, even though Pletnev uses the LONG cadenza in the first movement -- this after blathering at length in the notes about his "special relationship" with this music -- he might have shown some consistency if he had used the short cadenza in movement one.
There is no reason, in the 21st century, for a major virtuoso to use the cuts that were forced on Rachmaninoff by RCA in the days of 78rpm discs at the beginning of the 20th century! Those same idiots at RCA were responsible for his NOT recording all his symphonic works as conductor back then. Even though some sloppy music critics refer to these cuts in the Rach3 as "standard," they completely disfigure and unbalance the great symmetry of this movement AND the whole cyclical nature of the concerto. Lest we forget, it was the master idiots at RCA who sold David Helfgott's spastic, sloppy and unmusical version of Rach3, through the furor of the SHINE film, as a legitimate performance -- it's more akin to a train wreck.
Furthermore, Maestro Pletnev, a major international virtuoso, plays as if he truly doesn't listen to the sounds (or noises) he makes on his instrument. Many are the young piano students who are "boxed upside the head" when they abuse the damper pedal excessively. In this recording, it appears the pianist missed that lesson completely: the pedal gets put to the metal mercilessly as he literally pounds the keys, banging on the piano! It has been years since I have heard such tasteless playing. I wonder if the recording producer at the sessions had any authority or was hired to be a toady...
The result is one of the worst recordings of the Rach3 in many years. SACD adds nothing when a recording is such a musical disaster. The master tapes (or hard drives) of this performance should be erased, then buried next to David Helfgott's performance, and the perpetrators stripped and sprayed. The discs should be made into chains for hanging room dividers or scoops for kitty litter.
What a waste!!! No wonder classical recordings aren't selling! This turkey deserves to be ignored. I deeply regret I spent good cash on this musical miscarriage...
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