Ruth Laredo Plays Rachmaninoff - Th E Complete Solo Piano Music

When a young Ruth Laredo completed her audition with the great virtuoso pianist Rudolf Serkin, he stated " I can see you play the piano like a tiger ". Of course he was right. She was a student of the great virtuoso for six years and along the way studied with the great virtuoso cellist, Pablo Casals. Ms Laredo was once described by a very perceptive music critic as a " force of nature ". That she was. She was a great American classical pianist who ranked in the first tier of contemporary American classical pianist to include: Byron Janis, Van Cliburn, Leonard Pennario, John Browning, Gary Graffman, Leon Fleisher, Peter Serkin and others. She was a pioneer in recording the complete solo piano works by Rachmaninoff and the complete piano sonatas by Scriabin. Her interpretations and performances have been held in high esteem by all serious music critics that I am familiar with. I encourage all prospective buyers of this five disk set to go on line and review the numerous critical reviews by the N.Y. Times and other publications. I received the set from Amazon on 3/19/21, and can not put it down. These are great performances worthy of 5 star ratings. If you decide to purchase this set, get ready to hear some of the most beautiful and powerful music ever written for the piano performed by one of America's finest pianist. My review stands at odds with the reviews of I Giles and Stephen Fairly. They are entitled to their opinions, as am I.

Includes some esoteric Rach pieces with just average CD quality, but if you value listening to a great artist of the past and her own interpretations, well worth it.

Dig Ruth Laredo. Her command of each pieces dynamics and melodic trajectory is inspiring. She serves the composer well and the recorded sound is exemplary.The LP set was something of a milestone in its day. And my oh me it still enchants today; most treasurable.

Excellent performances. A unique vision of Rachmaninoff. Great sound quality.

Great value. ARH

Verified Purchase in the UKRuth Laredo recorded these works in the mid to late 1970’s and the set is therefore roughly contemporary with the survey recorded by Ashkenazy. She frequently favours rapid and fluctuating tempi, frequently of an accelerating nature, as a means of conveying excitement and drama and this is seriously counter-productive as this eliminates that most important ingredient of all – the Russian soul. That requires the awareness of the importance of time, interpretive weight and a crucial sense of space and all of those requirements run counter to the approach put forward here.Significantly, there has been a remarkable flowering of interest in Rachmaninov’s piano music in the decades since these recordings were made. Many of these, but not all, have been made by a new generation of Russian born or Russian trained pianists and these really do have something to say and comprehensively demonstrate in abundance what is missing here.Without making detailed comparisons the following examples are all in a completely different league of empathy with the essence of Rachmaninov’s expressive musical world. The recording dates also give collectors a clear indication of the way this flowering is a modern phenomenon and one that utterly challenges the set by Ruth Laredo.Variations are better experienced in the hands of Scherbakov (19902), Lugansky (1993 and 2003/4), Rodriguez (1995), Pletnev (1998), Sudbin (2005), Romanovsky (2008), Gulyak (2012) and Chochieva 92012).Preludes are better experienced in the hands of Lugansky (2000) and Nebolsin (2007) and the early Op. 3, 10 and 16 sets by Gavrylyuk (2011) and Giltburg (2015).The Etudes Tableaux are better delivered by Ovchinnikov (1989), Lugansky (1992), Gavrylyuk (2007), Paterson-Olenich (2008), Romanovsky (2002), Giltburg (2015) and Chochieva (2015).The Sonatas are better delivered by Kocsis (1994), Lugansky (1993 & 2012), Scherbakov (1999), Sudbin (2005), Paterson-Olenich (2008) and Chochieva (2012).The complete set by Shelley offers more idiomatically sympathetic understanding but that is overshadowed by Ashkenazy’s almost complete survey. There are numerous other recital options and for those interested in the two piano works (Symphonic Dances and Suites) collectors should investigate recordings by Ashkenazy / Previn, Alexeev / Demidenko, Petrov / Ghindin, Argerich / Friere as well as Shelley and his wife.The set by Ruth Laredo is not in the same league as any of the above. Its main attractiveness is its compact completeness and price. All the notes are dispatched with impressive ease but that is the musical problem as easy comparisons with both established and new generation recordings make all too clear. Experienced collectors and new-comers are advised to be cautious when considering this set.

Ruth Laredo recorded these works in the mid to late 1970’s and the set is therefore roughly contemporary with the survey recorded by Ashkenazy. She frequently favours rapid and fluctuating tempi, frequently of an accelerating nature, as a means of conveying excitement and drama and this is seriously counter-productive as this eliminates that most important ingredient of all – the Russian soul. That requires the awareness of the importance of time, interpretive weight and a crucial sense of space and all of those requirements run counter to the approach put forward here.Significantly, there has been a remarkable flowering of interest in Rachmaninov’s piano music in the decades since these recordings were made. Many of these, but not all, have been made by a new generation of Russian born or Russian trained pianists and these really do have something to say and comprehensively demonstrate in abundance what is missing here.Without making detailed comparisons the following examples are all in a completely different league of empathy with the essence of Rachmaninov’s expressive musical world. The recording dates also give collectors a clear indication of the way this flowering is a modern phenomenon and one that utterly challenges the set by Ruth Laredo.Variations are better experienced in the hands of Scherbakov (19902), Lugansky (1993 and 2003/4), Rodriguez (1995), Pletnev (1998), Sudbin (2005), Romanovsky (2008), Gulyak (2012) and Chochieva 92012).Preludes are better experienced in the hands of Lugansky (2000) and Nebolsin (2007) and the early Op. 3, 10 and 16 sets by Gavrylyuk (2011) and Giltburg (2015).The Etudes Tableaux are better delivered by Ovchinnikov (1989), Lugansky (1992), Gavrylyuk (2007), Paterson-Olenich (2008), Romanovsky (2002), Giltburg (2015) and Chochieva (2015).The Sonatas are better delivered by Kocsis (1994), Lugansky (1993 & 2012), Scherbakov (1999), Sudbin (2005), Paterson-Olenich (2008) and Chochieva (2012).The complete set by Shelley offers more idiomatically sympathetic understanding but that is overshadowed by Ashkenazy’s almost complete survey. There are numerous other recital options and for those interested in the two piano works (Symphonic Dances and Suites) collectors should investigate recordings by Ashkenazy / Previn, Alexeev / Demidenko, Petrov / Ghindin, Argerich / Friere as well as Shelley and his wife.The set by Ruth Laredo is not in the same league as any of the above. Its main attractiveness is its compact completeness and price. All the notes are dispatched with impressive ease but that is the musical problem as easy comparisons with both established and new generation recordings make all too clear. Experienced collectors and new-comers are advised to be cautious when considering this set.

I purchased this set for a second time having owned it some years ago in its original format. After listening to it again I began to realise why I sold it all those years ago. The reason being that it is not particularly distinguished playing. Don't get me wrong Laredo's technique is not at fault but you can't help thinking that she is somehow going through the motions and not plunging the depths of emotion that these pieces really need. In its day the set offered a good survey of Rachmaninov's solo piano works at a time when there wasn't a lot of choice in this repertoire. However, today it is not so competitive on anything other than price grounds. Unfortunately, the recorded piano sound is not helpful as its often heavy and lifeless. Also I found the pedal noise on these recordings infuriatingly distracting. While I realise that pedal noise is a factor of piano recordings I found it hard to bear on this set.Ultimately, it's not a bad survey just not a great one and none of the discs would rank anywhere near first choice (at least for me) in this brilliant music. I have Ashkenazy's solo Rachmaninov Decca recordings as well as recital selections by others such as the wonderful Nikolai Demidenko and Dmitri Alexeev. All of these artists convey this music with much more emotional depth than Ruth Laredo. Having been disappointed with this set I have now invested in Howard Shelley's complete Hyperion survey. I can't say I'm disappointed either, as soon as I listened to the Morceaux de fantaisie on the first disc I realised that I'd made the right choice. So to conclude, I can't recommend Laredo even on the grounds of low cost. Even in today's austere economic times it would be best to save your pennies for something more heavenly like Shelley's set.

SUPERB Rachmaninov. Powerful yet no shortage of emotion. She sweeps you along then lingers but never too much. An amazing bargain.

Cette intégrale est pour moi injustement méconnue. Mme Laredo respire cette musique slave et morbide d'une manière instinctive. Son piano prend des tons et des couleurs fantastiques! Et jamais la véhémence de certains passages n'efface la poignante nostalgie de ses pages. Une pianiste à placer à côté des plus grands spécialistes du compositeur (Richter, Horowitz, Gilels, Janis)

A lot of the music I had not heard before,so I found this set of discs very much a delidgt.