Rachmaninoff for Two in Bloomington, MN

The apex of the duo piano repertory was reached with
Rachmaninov
, who challenged pianists with the maximum in technical brilliance while also deploying the rich textures of the medium in ultra-Romantic moods. Performances may emphasize one or the other of these and may take various attitudes toward the knuckle-breaking materials of, say, the Tarantella from the
Suite No. 2 for two pianos, Op. 17
. Here, the order of the day is pure old-school Russian pianism, brilliant and, where necessary, thundering. These pieces are unforgiving of any hint of un-coordination, and there is none in these readings, perhaps because the players were aided by having been teacher (
Sergei Babayan
) and student (
Daniil Trifonov
). They do slow things down effectively in the programmatic and more Tchaikovskian
Suite No. 1, Op. 5
, based on poems by
Byron
,
Lermontov
, and others. However, the chief attraction here is hearing the pianos pushed to their limits.
and
Vladimir Horowitz
played two of these pieces, the
Suite No. 2
's own arrangement of the
Symphonic Dances
, at a Los Angeles party shortly before the composer's death. One would like to have been a fly on the wall at that event, but this may be the next best thing. The album made classical best-seller lists in the spring of 2024. ~ James Manheim