Post-romantic drivel.

meh

kzbin.info/www/bejne/rIPZh55nZ8mpocksi=L9y-rkpnqr_4HB5q

I think Darke's arrangement wins over Holst for its humanity. Holst's is orchestral, and suited to a big stage; whereas any village choir can sing Darke's version, and make it sound good if they're half-competent.

Surely the Mount Everest of piano concertos! It's almost always unbelievable when played by one of the greats. Rachmaninoff knew how to elevate the emotions while raising the 'wow factor' to screaming heights at the same time. Simply the greatest!

Rach himself said Horowitz plays this piece better than him.

If it's not Chopin or Beethoven I disagree, and there's another thing, the orchestra is swallowing the piano, Not even Horowitz, who has a gigantic, thunderous sound, was swallowed up for a moment. It is a characteristic of this music in particular

the greatest is quite a statement - but it's certainly one of the greatest finales ever written.

I was at this concert. The first half of the program was Beethoven's 8th Symphony and the Webern Six Pieces for Orchestra. Of course everyone was really waiting for Horowitz.

The finale of his second piano concerto is also wonderful. But, for me, the greatest finale is that of Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony.

I salute you in your choice. But my choice for the greatest ending of a piece of music is the final movement of Sibelius' 2nd symphony.

I clicked on this thinking "I'm going to disagree" but as soon as the video started I accepted the fact that I had been entirely wrong.

Esse final de Rach 3 é sublime e maravigliosso

It absolute IS the greatest finale ever rwritten.

Yes, yes, YES!!! The Rach 3 is the greatest piece of music ever written. Sorry, Gustav.

Sometimes, savoring Rachmaninoff is the best approach. Horowitz is galloping through his part like he's got a train to catch. What's the rush? The part is just as virtuosic if played at a sane tempo that allows the music to sing and breathe.

Agreed. It's so exciting. And just such a snappy final cadence.

Alexander Malofeev overshadows this by a lot. And as a teenager, nonetheless. Shame that there are still people catering to old overrated talents who were left unchallenged for decades. Here are 2 endings of Malofeev. I was at the second one in Frankfurt. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iXSrmGyqqtVshKM kzbin.info/www/bejne/hoLcdqWYidWGhJI

Nope.

Doesn’t it make you want to jump up out of seat at the end! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👍👍👍👍👍👍

I think my Rachmaninoff addiction has peaked. I could tell which piece it was just by looking at the 3 measures in the thumbnail.

I agree - "the greatest finale ever written!!!" Rach as a performer, composer, conductor was one of the greatest musicians ever born. There was no reason for the sad expression perpetually on his face with his accomplishments! I was 8 years old, heard the 2nd Rach Piano Concerto and came to the realization of the glory of music. I thought my call was to performance, but soon learned it was to teacher of music in public schools (36 years)!

I am old enough to have heard Horowitz when he was much younger. He always lived huge, loud pedal points in the bass, which often “overcame” technical deficits in the rest. I can actually play these pages. They are not terribly difficult. I can do them at half the tempo of this performance, much more clearly. And I know other amateur pianists who can do the same. This is wonderful music of course and is typical Rachmaninov. But there are other parts of this s concerto that are WAY more difficult. Sanjosemike (no longer in CA)

Rachmaninov un genio!!

I love that Rachmaninov goes all the way up to the highest note on the piano, just for the hell of it!

To be able to play Rach 3 at all is an extraordinary achievement. To play it really well is.....super-human!

There is no such thing as "the greatest ever" in classical music

We used to sing this at school. It's by far my favourite version. Really beautiful.

Nice but kinda difficult to hum in the shower...

the greatest finale ever written... Possibly true for piano concerti but I can think of many more symphonies with dramatic finales including Rachmaninov 1st & 2nd symphonies and too many to mention with other composers. In general with concerti it the first movement which is the most important, second can be moving and third is usually celebratory.

Aww, I could do that.

Oh, what a mess- almost every chord is a fistful of wrong notes. I believe he announced that he would no longer this concerto after ( as a result of?) this performance. He was a great pianist, but I'd rather listen to anyone but Horowitz play this concerto. And there have been many great performances since, with all his power and passion, but also with the right notes.

It may be the best Rachmaninoff finale, for what that's worth

Probably the best performance of that ever.

Prefer Ashkenazy. Horowitz makes too many mistakes...............

Endings like this are just kinda wanking. Their goal is to stir up the hoi polloi and get a big ovation. Not my thing.

I guess you were talking about symphony / concerto endings, but Chopin's Ballade No.1 in G minor, Op.23 has the greatest ending among them all. That coda, that chord at the end, everything was perfect. Emotions in the coda (anger, sadness, sorrow, depression, denial), in my opinion, it perfectly describes the five stages of grief. Ballade No.1, Op.23 is the greatest among them all.

Sheesh!

rach 3 is a threadless mess

Fluffed at 0:42

I'm absolutely sure my neighbors have heard this exact passage, because I play it incessantly at times. It is absolutely one of the greatest concerto passages of all time, not to mention piano segments, and you are so right. Maybe not the most famous Rachmaninoff, but the most exciting? Holy crap yes.

Poor guy. I feel so sorry him. How humiliating!!!😮😮

Would rather see Horowitz playing than the score.

The 1954 Groves' offered this famous verdict on Rachmaninoff "His music is well constructed and effective but monotonous in texture, which consists in essence mainly of artificial and gushing tunes accompanied by a variety of figures derived from arpeggios. ... The enormous popular success some few of Rachmaninoff's works had in his lifetime is not likely to last, and musicians never regarded it with much favor."

You would think that was humanly impossible.

Someone please tell me why Horowitz is so beloved. Much like with Sokolov, I can't enjoy his Rachmaninoff because of how unbearably sloppy it is. Playing loudly and quickly doesn't equate to playing expressively.

In my personal opinion, the best finale ever written should be Tchaikovsky's Priano Concerto nº1

Not.

This sounds like music from Tom and Jerry! I like it

Glazunov’s Violin Concerto does this and more; its coda is five minutes of continual musical compression, accelerando, variation, ratcheting up the tension and tonality until there’s literally nowhere else to go but to a final cadence, all in grand Russian style. Let’s also not forget Grieg (which Rachmaninov modeled his first Concerto after), whose final big tune left even Liszt singing and crying out “G, not G#! G, not G#!” The final piano statement Liszt was so ecstatic about also has literally the crunchiest Romantic chord ever, the right hand index finger and thumb have to cross to play an F# and G in a five note chord that hurts oh-so-good, both to play and to hear.