VA - Rachmaninoff. Anniversary edition (33 CD Box Set) (2018)

The edition contains a booklet in four languages, 33 discs and a record with previously unreleased recordings: The second piano concerto performed by Vladimir Krainev and the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yuri Temirkanov; "Vocalise" in the author's orchestral version performed by the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Dmitry Kitaenko.

Performer: Vladimir Selivokhin, Evgeny Kisin, Emil Gilels, Svyatoslav Richter, Grigory Sokolov, Evgeny Svetlanov, Dmitry Masleev, Nikolai Lugansky

"Firm Melody" presents a publication dedicated to the 145th anniversary of Sergei Rachmaninoff. The Tower of Babel from concert and studio recordings of Sergei Rachmaninoff's music delights the ears and eyes of a music lover today as well as throughout the XX century. In this tower, you can easily recognize the voices of "native speakers" of Rachmaninoff's music, that is, performers who spoke Rachmaninoff's native language, breathed the same air and enjoyed the same autumn landscapes as a child. In fact, this collection is a tower in itself: looking at the list of Rachmaninoff's works and the names of Russian and Soviet performers at the Rachmaninoff collection offered by the legendary "Melody" on the occasion of the 145th anniversary of the composer's birth, this is exactly what one can assume. To the great surprise of connoisseurs and amateurs, such a collection has never been published before.

Russian Russian idiom (if we continue to talk in metaphorical language), which has never been presented so completely and powerfully before, reaches a "critical mass" here, capable of leading to important conclusions about Russian musical stylistics and interpretation in general. The list includes the names of great singers from the generation of Soviet classics, including Irina Arkhipova, Ivan Kozlovsky, Georgy Knapp, Elena Obraztsova and Mark Reisen, up to the most relevant internationally recognized stars such as Hibla Gerzmava. Chamber music performed by outstanding ensembles and soloists, including David Oistrakh, Leonid Kogan, Mstislav Rostropovich, Gidon Kremer and Daniil Shafran, is widely presented here. An unusual element of the collection is recordings of Rachmaninov's Russian Orthodox sacred music — the one that was carefully hushed up in Soviet times. Opera music is represented by the best domestic samples, and here, of course, the native Russian pronunciation raises the level of performance to classical heights. And, of course, the poetics of the piano, in which Sergei Rachmaninoff expressed himself in the most free way, is represented in the collection by names that do not need advertising: Svyatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, Grigory Sokolov, Vladimir Krainev, Alexey Nasedkin, Pavel Serebryakov, and this list goes on to the youngest inhabitant of the piano Olympus Dmitry Masleev.

For connoisseurs, this collection offers rare samples, many of which have not been previously released on "Melodies", as well as a number of delightful branded melody recordings made with the help of tube microphones, recordings with an incomparable quality of live human participation and tinged with a slight tinge of nostalgia.