Saturday 7 April 2012

Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto 2 [Grimaud/ Ashkenazy-Philharmonia Orchestra]

A lovely reading of Rachmaninov's Second Concerto, and yet i've heard in some quartets that this isn't a very good performance, but i certainly love it, Helene Grimaud has a certain way that i love, there's a rapt attention and even spirituality in her performances, i can almost 'feel' when she goes onto a higher plane, the music subtly changes, there's a rapt intensity, i played this work by her in 2010 [15th August 2010]i hope she now gives us some complete Rachmaninov Preludes or Etudes, she seems to rather prefer recitals instead of systematically giving us the full works.

Helene Grimaud is French, she's now 42, and she recorded this work in 2000, she once said 'there is an erotic power to the microphone'!, she loves to record music, and we love her recordings in return, the booklet photograph [by Norma Jean Roy], is a nice coy portrait, with Grimaud leaning against her piano, the point of the large 'e' in her name i don't really get.