tarigwaemir

Lowell House, on the Feast of St. Anthony

Someone uploaded a new recording of Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto no. 2 on

the_s_orchestra performed by Lang Lang and the Marinsky Theatre Orchestra, with the additional comment that the interpretation was very different and unusual. Out of curiosity, I downloaded it and listened to the first two movements just now.

Basic reaction: Whoa. O_O I had no idea that you could take such liberties with the score.

I can't decide whether I like it or not; I'm too surprised (and to be honest, a little disoriented) to be sure.

Let's see, the first recording I heard was with Evgeny Kissin (I forget the orchestra). The recording I own, and hence have imprinted on, is with Ashkenazy and the Moscow Philharmonic. I don't think I've listened to any other recordings or performances until I heard it on the live-action Nodame Cantabile drama. Actually, I thought the "Chiaki" version threw me off quite a bit, because the tempo was different from what I was used to, but clearly I had no idea how far you could take an interpretation.

In the middle of the third movement: oh my gosh, what just happened, that passage was played twice as fast as it normally is! The tone color of the orchestra is completely different. ::in shock::

Well, judging by the Amazon reviews, I'm not the only one who's shocked. Actually, I kind of admire the daring involved in such radical reinterpretation, but I can't tell if it's effective or not because I'm so busy going, "Wait, you did not just do that...oh my gosh, you did!" Listening to this recording is the musical equivalent of watching one of those contortionist troupes: I had no idea music could bend that way.

Oh man, now I have to go and listen to all the other recordings I can find to make a proper comparison. (Studying for finals? What's that?)

Yours &c.

Post-script: I keep forgetting to mention, but