Rachmaninov • Bach

Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos 2 & 4; JS Bach: Suite from

Solo Violin Partita No. 3 (Arr. Rachmaninov)

Daniil Trifonov (piano); Philadelphia Orchestra/yannick Nézet-séguin

DG 483 5335 70:10 mins Why package these two concertos under the title Destination Rachmaninov – Departure? You may also wonder at the relevance of the cover’s photograph featuring a soulful looking Daniil Trifonov sitting alone in a railway compartment.

Yet far from being mere marketing gimmicks, both title and photograph pertinently ref lect the trajectory of Rachmaninov’s life. In particular, they remind us that following his nervous breakdown at the end of the 19th century, Rachmaninov was forced to re-launch his career with the Second Concerto, and effectively start all over again as an exile from Russia after 1917 with the Fourth.

The train journey analogy is particularly apposite to the patchwork structure of the Fourth, composed whilst Rachmaninov hectically criss-crossed the United States giving recitals in every major city. Trifonov is wonderfully alive to its mercurial piano writing, achieving astonishing crystalline delicacy in the elaborate filigree passage work and negotiating unexpected juxtapositions of mood, from romantic warmth and nostalgia (in the haunting slow movement) to irony and percussive rhythmic intensity (in the finale), with a sure sense of purpose. Yannick Nézetséguin and the superbly responsive Philadelphia Orchestra follow the soloist’s every interpretative nuance.

Their partnership in the

Second is even more impressive.

The Philadelphia strings give a wonderfully lush delivery of the opening melody, and the slow movement dialogue between solo woodwind, horn and solo piano achieves a subtlety of phrasing and an intimacy worthy of the very finest chamber music playing. Erik Levi PERFORMANCE ★★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★★