Walter Gieseking - Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto # 2 LIVE from concert 1940 ()

Walter Gieseking with the Concertgebouw Orchestra led by Willem Mengelberg plays Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto # 2 LIVE 1940 Of the many dozen recordings of the Second that followed, we have only two by pianists whom Rachmaninoff was known to have admired. Walter Gieseking, Willem Mengelberg and the Concertgebouw - Archipel CD cover The first is a 1940 concert by Walter Gieseking with the Concertgebouw Orchestra led by Willem Mengelberg. Known to his detractors as “Mangleberg,“ this conductor never let a score stand in the way of his own inclination and here he liberally recasts tempos, phrasing and dynamics to produce a hugely dramatic and deeply personal reading that sidesteps much of the work’s inherent subtlety to drive home the structure in a schematic but undeniably effective way (i.e.: volume and tempo increase for climaxes). Unfortunately, we have no other Gieseking Rachmaninoff recordings (other than a Mengelberg/Concertgebouw concert of the Third Concerto) for comparison,