Cliburn was the pianist (and household name along with Ormandy, etc if one collected in US in the '70's), who introduced me to these works so it's really hard to know if I'm the dupe of "imprinting" here, but I still find him very enjoyable as re-released in the "Living Stereo" SACD series: Rach's 2nd/3rd, Prokofiev 3rd, and Tchaikovsky 1st.
I've noticed more than a few reviewers dismiss him as "bland," but I just can't agree. Yes: he's a little slower than some, but he's not slow in the modern artistic sense: distorting and fussing over every phrase in the name of "fresh" "profound," "insightful" interpretation ala Rattle, Gergiev, and Sinopoli, (though the latter can be riveting); No. Cliburn IMHO allows the music to breath and all the impossibly huge and thick passing piano chords ring thus register.
As an example I would take the whirlwind finale of the Prokofiev 3rd: have you ever been better able to hear the actual chord progressions and logic which underpin the music? Confession: I just don't get Janis (or Argerich) in this piece, though I appreciate their superhuman speed, but what of Prokofiev's poetry?
What makes the Cliburn/Hendl approach special to me is their projection of lyricism and the fantastical: links to Romeo and Juliet and the 1st violin concerto. Cliburn/CSO indulge in some remarkably beautiful moments in the first mov't which others gloss right over: the lonely, dovetailing clarinet solo, or those quiet, swelling twice-repeated chord progressions for strings accompanied by mercurial "star-spray" on the piano, (lifted for the Star Trek "final frontier" aural signature). The recording of this piece, and the Rach 2nd--both in Chicago by the Layton/Mohr team--are the best of the lot.
And so it goes; the finale of the Rachmaninoff 3rd is exciting but not hard-pressed and thus reveals myriad detail. (Though trumpet is artificially-forward). Listen to all the detail in the famous "plunge into despair" as the piano enters in the 2nd mov't, done without fussiness or over-indulgence, but more important to me in this age of (Paavo) Jarvian, Spanoian, and Pletnevian "thin-lippedness," Cliburn and Kondrashin don't shy away from these moments of darkness or ecstasy either...they just know when to come up for air, IMHO. The strings in the 3rd get a little hard occasionally, but I've heard recordings in "pure DSD" which are worse. What can one do?
The Tchaikovsky 1st is as lovely as ever not least in the bubbling poetry of the mid-first mov't, which when compared to the Volodos, is much more poetic as well at it's more leisurely pace. Cliburn comes out on top in this respect throughout the piece, from the limpid 2nd mov't to the flying octave runs of the last pages which come across and thunderous as well as fast.
Whatever the battle between Lp and SACD, the SACDs are clearly better with regard to presenting the last pages of all these Concerti; which unfortunately for Lp are placed in the last, most unflattering spirals of grooves. At as low as $4.99 nowadays, do give old Cliburn a try.
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