Given that there are so many discs of the Rachmaninov Piano Concertos available to buy, you have to ask what makes this set different or better than the rest? It's quite refreshing for a start, that all the works are played by different pianists. My main incentive to buy it was Nikolai Petrov's fantastic performance of the 4th Concerto in G minor, its first release on CD from vinyl.

This 8-CD set contains the works for piano solo by Sergei Rachmaninoff, 20-th century romantic, one of the greatest pianists of all time himself. In his iconic piano works he expresses his deepest personal emotions, from ecstatic joy and tolling of bells, to Slavic melancholy and utter tragedy. Many of his works became standard concert repertoire: the 24 Preludes, the Etudes-tableaux, the Moments Musicaux, the two Piano Sonatas and the two Variations sets on themes by Corelli and Chopin.

It's a wonderful treat to find an album whose interest rests equally on its musical as well as historical merits. As such, the present two-disc sets of the complete Rachmaninoff concertos and Paganini Rhapsody cannot be beat. The three pianists heard here – Richter, Zak, and Oborin – represent the pinnacle of postwar Russian pianists. Richter is most likely the one still known to the majority of American listeners. But Zak (who was immensely influential not only as a performer but as a pedagogue) and Oborin (who was the first winner of the Chopin Competition) were recognized equally during their lifetimes. All three had a profound and obvious command of Rachmaninoff, and the performances heard here clearly demonstrate this fact.

Like her other duo-recording venture with pianist Alexandre Rabinovitch, this album again demonstrates why pianist Martha Argerich is the grand dame of two-piano works. This album, with pianist Nelson Freire, offers another interpretation of the Rachmaninoff Second Suite for Two Pianos as well as a transcription of Ravel's La Valse and Lutoslawski's Variations on a Theme of Paganini. Unlike many other piano duos, Argerich and Freire are capable of drawing an amazingly convincing, almost symphonic sound out of their two instruments.

Sergey Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil, also known as the Vespers, is among his most admired works, and it was one of the composer's own favorites, along with The Bells. This 2015 Chandos release by Charles Bruffy and the combined voices of the Phoenix Chorale and the Kansas City Chorale presents the music in the super audio format, so the richness of the divisi choral parts and the depth of the basso profundo come across fully in the multichannel reproduction. Bruffy is the musical director of both groups, so his special rapport with them creates an even ensemble blend that balances the largely homophonic textures, and brings a consistency of approach to the three styles of chant Rachmaninov imitated, Kievan, Greek, and Znamenny. The beauty of the a cappella voices and the surprisingly lush harmonies make this setting immediately appealing and ultimately moving, and listeners who enjoy sacred choral music for inspiration or meditation will find the All-Night Vigil's smooth flow and expressive warmth well-suited to those purposes.

This new recording (recorded in 2012) brings together two great, but altogether different 20th century Cello Sonatas from Russia: the gorgeous and deeply romantic cello sonata by Rachmaninoff, of near‐symphonic proportions, and the cello sonata by Prokofiev, a hybrid piece of his later period, a fascinating mixture of the romantic, the grotesque and the introspective side of the multi-faceted composer..

Sequiera Costa is a legend among pianists. In 1951 he was honoured with the Grand Prix de Paris at the Marguerite Long International Competition. Since receiving that momentous honour, he has played an important role in music history in our time. Dmitri Shostakovich invited him to join a distinguished body of jurors, which included Sviatoslav Richter, Dimitri Kabalevsky, Aram Khachaturian and Emil Gilels, for the First International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow. As the youngest member of this prestigious jury, he was only a few years older than Van Cliburn, the winner of the competition.

“Intensely musical performances of works that are so often treated as mere showpieces. It is pleasant to renew acquaintance with this under-rated pianist, whose command of the virtuoso elements in these works is second to none, but whose inherent musicianship reveals aspects that superficial pianists overlook. Excellent orchestral support and fine recording ensure a strong recommendation”

This is a phenomenal recording of this immensely popular concerto. It has been played to the point of exhaustion with every virtuoso using it to showcase their skills, which makes it extremely difficult to say something new. Kissin definitely grabs your attention from the first theme, taken at a slower tempo than usual, however, unlike some other artists he manages to keep your attention all the way through. He creates such immense drama and scale (this concerto has never sounded so huge as it did in this recording). The final moments of the concerto are nothing short of breathtaking and the deafening applause thereafter is token to that fact.