Pianist
Arturo Bendetti Michelangeli
was notoriously finicky about recording, and the compilers of the BBC's 50 greatest classical recordings list had fewer items to choose from for him, although including him seemed to be a foregone conclusion. This 1958 release was a fine representative of his work, even though he wasn't much known for
Rachmaninov
, but that was just the thing.
Michelangeli
combined an instantly recognizable technical brilliance with an easy insight into any number of composers.
Ravel
and
made an odd pair, but he handled both beautifully. The
Piano Concerto in G major
was right up his alley, yet even those fully aware of this may be startled to hear the clarity of the jazz accents in the finale. The contrast of mood in
's
Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor
could hardly be greater; he probes deeply into this darkest of
's four, and people around at the time said that he played the concerto better than
himself, which was saying a lot. This recording has been reissued multiple times, but the late '90s version from
EMI
in its recordings-of-the-century series is superior, eliminating a lot of the tape hiss. ~ James Manheim