Rachmaninov: Complete Piano Concertos

Leif Ove Andsnes has long been renowned for his powerfully emotive and disciplined performances of Rachmaninov: attributes prized by the supreme composer-pianist himself. This set brings together for the first time the complete cycle of acclaimed concerto recordings, including the perennially loved Second in an award-winning live performance, acclaimed by Gramophone as 'a Rolls-Royce reading.'

"If judicious sensuality is indeed on vital quality that manifests itself in [Andsnes's] new recording with the LSO and Pappano, another is the impressive physicality of the performance...He, Pappano and the orchestra breathe together...If Andsnes's playing is arresting for the quantity of relevant detail that he conveys, so too is the orchestra's." Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2010

"...together with his lustrous tone and physical power he brings to the Third Concerto a compelling poetic sensibility. He and Pappano are entirely as one in finding the music's pulse, its fluxes of pace and its blend of grandeur, mellowness and bravura...This is a disc of terrific stature." The Telegraph, 5th October 2010 *****

"Leif Ove Andsnes and Antonio Pappano deliver full bodied and intelligently detailed readings of Rachmaninov…Andsnes and Pappano undoubtedly are world-class contenders in a crowded market, and I hope they plan further recorded collaborations" Classics Today

"As Andsnes observed in interview, the conductor is the one who really drives the Second Concerto, and after spacious opening chords it's over to Pappano's Berliners for opulent sweep. Andsnes lets intensity slacken in the development, but the return of the big tune puts us back on track. The slow movement is beautifully moulded, with plenty of now-unfashionable but ever self-indulgent string vibrato." BBC Music Magazine, October 2005