Destination Rachmaninov: Departure

This is one of 2018’s most exciting piano concerto recordings. It combines an outstanding, electrifying pianist with an imaginative, commanding conductor, plus one of America’s greatest orchestras. Presented through the prism of Rachmaninov’s travels—fleeing Russia, journeying around the world as a performer, settling in the United States—this recording of the Second and Fourth Concertos is magnificent. The Second is noble, romantic, and wonderfully rich, while the more complex Fourth is superbly realized. Between them comes Bach envisioned by Rachmaninov and played by Trifonov with delicacy and delicious insouciance.