Very fortunately, Rachmaninov's consummate genius as a pianist was captured on a number of records. They stand as one of the truly important legacies of the early years of the gramophone industry. In the recordings of his own music one is especially interested to hear how such a grim-looking man could be reconciled with some of the most tender and whimsical pieces ever written for the instrument. It turns out that his interpretations are model in terms of fluent, yet almost classically controlled, expressivity. The subtlety of Rachmaninov's artistry never acted against his very lively attitude towards performance.

After a selection of lesser-known Preludes, each of which contains that miraculously balanced relationship between melody and accompaniment for which the composer-pianist was idolized, there are three of the Etudes-tableaux and the piece Daisies. Whereas two of the former show the grittier and more gaunt side of the Russian, Daisies, by way of contrast, has the feel of a Gershwin song transcription. Its warmth and colour are indescribable.

Three earlier pieces demonstrate just how early in his creative life Rachmaninov was able to find a distinctive style. The dynamic contrasts prescribed in the Humoresque may have been ironed out here in consideration for the recording process, but the latter part of the piece has a power and diablerie that almost outdoes Horowitz. Both the Polka de VR and the Liebesfreud have a far more directly light and gay mood than one normally hears. Everywhere there is a gentle, teasing humour. The Bach, recorded a year before Rachmaninov's death, shows some deterioration in his playing. Of the other transcriptions, the Schubert really is pretty terrible with its highly elaborate accompaniment. The Tchaikovsky, in which there is a melancholy and dreamy use of piano tone, finds the pianist delighting in the pureness of the instrument's sonority.

This anthology includes nearly all the electric 78s that Rachmaninov recorded of his own music. They date from April 1925, the year in which the first electric recordings came into general use, to February 1942. However, nine of the pieces are the product of one's day's sessions in March 1940. Quite naturally, the sound-quality varies a certain amount, as does the amount of surface noise, with the Gopak being about the most primitive. Nevertheless, a definite and individual use of piano tone is apparent in every note that Rachmaninov plays and this consistency itself speaks for the fidelity of the recordings.

-- James Methuen-Campbell, Gramophone [5/1990]