Rachmaninov Symphonies 1-3

If there is one composer that I enjoy listening to it would have to be Rachmaninov. Such an interesting life that is I think infused into the development of the sounds in his head which he was able to convey to listeners that could ultimately still listen to those same or similar sounds many years later.

I have several performances of all three symphonies and the accompanying pieces on some of the recordings. The one I listen to most is the Concertgebouw Orchestra which I would like to listen to live one day. And the performer of this particular recording is Vladimir Ashkenazy in a performance that definitely has some negatives in its recording of distractions like chair noise or musician gestures, breaths etc being able to be heard in a way that takes away from the performance. It is in these areas that the performance also becomes quite life force sucking. Maybe it's by design - indicating a hard time period being represented in the play of the sounds. Maybe it's just the musicians becoming a little tired. It often makes me take off the headphones at those exact points many times.

I enjoy rarely the times when I can listen to a pair back to back or a piece like The Isle of The Dead together with another side piece which is included in the Decca label recording I have of it in just 16 bit / 44.1 kHz format. The times I am able to, it soothes me in a way that tells me that the passage of time isn't such a bad thing and the mellowing of the symphonies and the austerity of the third is quite obvious even to a novice listener like myself. In any case it's one of those things that is hard to truly describe but it does feel like a journey. A worthwhile journey.