Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2; Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini.(Sound Recording Review)

Werner Haas, piano; Eliahu Inbal, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. PentaTone Classics 5186 114.

For a while now Telarc Records have been distributing a line of SACD recordings for the PentaTone label. About hall of these releases are of newly recorded material and about half are taken from the Philips archives, where they were originally made in the early 1970s during the short-lived "quadraphonic" era. Such is the case with the Rachmaninov disc reviewed here, recorded in 1974.

It's hard to divorce the sound of this recording from the music, so much is Rachmaninov wound up in emotional concerns. The sound is wide, warm, and slightly veiled, with a deep bass at one end but a lack of sparkle at the other. It means that pianist Werner Haas's performance may be more romanticized by the audio than by his playing. In any case, Haas and Inbal produce a sometimes highly charged, mostly laid-back and sentimental view of the Concerto, while they take a more analytical view of the Rhapsody, the exception being the popular 18th variation.

The disc is dual-layered, providing a two-channel stereo presentation on one layer and a four-channel presentation on the other. Although SACD allows for up to five discrete channels and a subwoofer track, PentaTone engineers decided to preserve the original intent of the old recording in four separate channels only. I do object to one of their publicity statements, though. I quote from the disc's booklet: "The advantages of multichannel recording and reproduction are ...