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His playing presents a delicious paradox... individualistic almost to the point of recreation, while so utterly natural, so profoundly honest, you could hardly imagine the music otherwise. [Beethoven Variations[ tautness of playing, absolute rhythmic security, burbling pianissimos, knife-edged sforzandos, artful rubato and unremitting sense of purpose... delicate observations occur by the bar... [trans-criptions] (Mendelssohn; Rimsky-Korsakov; Tchaikovsky) scintillating, full of musical interest. His reworking of Liebesleid is extremely beautiful. [his own music]... each sounds as if spontaneously improvised... The C sharp minor Prelude retains it's magic through perfect timing. That is perhaps where Rachmaninov remains most inimitable it wasn't how he struck the keys that mattered, but when. (Gramophone) Album Tracks 1. Prelude C-Sharp minor (Morceaux de Fantaisie, Op.3/2) (4/1928) 2. Prelude, Op.32/6 in F minor Allegro Appassionato (3/1940) 3. Beethoven Variations on Original Theme in C minor, Woo 80 (Excerpts) (4/1924 to 5/1925) 4. Chopin Ballade No.3 in A-Flat Major, Op.47 (13/4/1925) 5. Chopin Waltz No.7 in C-Sharp minor, Op.64 No.2 (5/4/1927) 6. Chopin Waltz No.8 in A-Flat Major, Op.64 No.3 (5/4/1927) 7. Mendelssohn's 'Scherzo' (A Midsummer Night's Dream Op.61) Arr. for Piano Rachmaninov, 1933 (23/12/1935) 8. Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Flight of the Bumblebee' ('The Tale of the Tsar Sultan') Arr. for Piano Rachmaninov, 1929 (4/1929) 9. Tchaikovsky Troïka (The Seasons, Op.37A X1)(11/4/1928) 10. Carl Tausig Valse-Caprice No. 2 (Nouvelle Soirées de Vienne) for Piano 'Man Lebt Nur Einmal' (After Strauss JR, Op.167) (4/1927) 11. Kreisler's 'Liebeslied' for Piano, TN Iii/5 (25/10/1921) (Arr. Rachmaninov 1921 from Alt-Wiener Tanzweisen No.1) V Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor, Op.118 (With Philadelphia Orchestra / Leopold Stokow
