Donald Satz wrote: >It strikes me that the recordings Ashkenazy has made of the Rachmaninov >Concertos, conducting or performing on piano, constitute a healthy >percentage of all available recordings of the Concertos: his set with >Haitink, the set with Previn, a Decca Legends disc, and his conducting >efforts on Ondine, Teldec with Helene Grimaud, and the Decca set with >Thibaudet. The man must really like Rachmaninov. I may be wrong, but I believe that at least at one time he was a member of the Rachmaninoff Society. It really does seem odd to me that with his incredible knowledge of Rachmaninoff's music, coupled with his incredible technique and musicianship, I have never warmed to very few Ashkenazy recordings of the music of Rachmaninoff. >As I told my wife, I need to retire from my current profession in order >to cover all the music I want to review. Most of my working and off hours are spent listening. There is never enough time, which makes it all so wonderful. >time late at night for intense listening. Last night, my intent was >to listen to Sergio Fiorentino's recording of Schumann's Kreisleriana. >Unfortunately, I was in a stupor for the first four movements and totally >asleep for the last four. That kind of regimen will get me nothing >except my beauty sleep. Here I go with a shameless plug... One of my favorite recordings of Kreisleriana is on our label Pierian... James Mathis in Concert Pierian 0011/12. Karl