I noticed the release
of Boris Giltburg playing Rachmaninov's Etudes-Tableaux
Op 39, and the Moments Musicaux Op 16. Since I love both sets
of pieces, I put the CD on my wishlist. After a time, I decided that,
given I already had several recordings of both pieces, including
those by Zlata Chochieva and Xiayin Wang, I would forgo
Giltburg, so I took him off the wishlist. Then a highly laudatory
review in the Gramophone magazine put him back on the
wishlist. Then I noticed it was a Naxos CD, and thus only around the
price of a good sirloin steak in the supermarket. So I bought the CD,
happily for me.
Giltburg is a pianist
on this CD with superb pianism, and a superlative range of sound and
dynamics. Some pieces I found too slow for my taste, but it did not
matter when Giltburg played them this way. Like Rachmaninov himself,
the pianist concentrates on the music, eschewing showmanship. Zlata
and Xiayin are still there in my must-listen pile. But so now is
Giltburg. Strange to remember that Rachmaninov the composer was once
somewhat looked down on by “those in the know”; it is dangerous
to write music that music lovers really like!
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