Two of the four piano concerts by Rachmaninov, brought to you by Zoltán Kocsis and Edo de Waart. Brilliant recordings of somehow challenged works. Especially the fourth concerto was never quite to the composer’s liking: he kept revising it. So much so that some changes never made it to paper, let alone publication.
The first, opus 1, is not the first concerto Rachmaninov ever wrote. There was an unfinished attempt at a piano concert that was never published. Rachmaninov wrote at aged 17 and then revised it years later in 1917. He managed to keep a youthful tone for the work. Incidentally, 1917 also marked the year where he fled Russia, right after the Revolution.
I added the whole series of Edo de Waart and Kocsis, because this particular combination is not there. Especially the third is well known, maybe a bit too much. It is nice to hear some of the others for a change.