Two completely different views
(Please listen to both. They are not long, and the playing is radically different. It’s like listening to two completely different stories. One to me is just fast, impressive, clean as a razor, and that version is Rachmaninov’s. We have to give it great weight, and in fact the performance is stunning. But the 2nd performance, by Pogorelich, is mysterious, much gentler and much more nuanced. It is also extremely different from what Rachmaninov indicated. So my question is this: Would Rachmaninov have been disgusted by such a willful change in his intentions? Would he have had mixed feelings? In other words, might he have said, “Well, that’s not what I had in mind, but I don’t object because it’s so interesting”. Or might he have said: “Wow! It never occurred to me to play it that way. He somehow took all my ideas and went to a different level. If I had thought of this myself, I would have played it like that too. I love what he did.”)
But we don’t know. Rachmaninov died in 1943, and this recording was made in 2001.
Rachmaninov
This is by Rachmaninov, and it’s frightening to think that he recorded it in 1940, about three years before his death.
He still possessed a frightening technique. It’s typical of how it is usually played, and probably the best version played in the standard way.
Pogorelich
This is the same piece, but it sounds completely different. I don’t know if the composer would have been shocked and insulted to hear it so changed, or fascinated with a new interpretation.
I find it fascinating, with a whole different set of tonal colors. Although this was written about 123 years ago, it might have been in the film score of “The Sixth Sense”, one of the weirdest ghost movies ever made.
Pogorelich has always been one of the strangest performers in history, with critics who loathe what he does and fans who love it. My take: if 50% of your listeners think you are horrible, and the other 50% think you are the best on the planet, you are probably doing something great by shaking things up. You are making people think.