The most popular piano concertos of the 20th century have never been short of outstanding interpreters, and the recorded history of Rachmaninov’s four concertos, together with the even more successful Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, is a hugely distinguished one. From the composer’s own recordings in the 1930s, to Daniil Trifonov’s cycle, completed in 2019, there’s no shortage of excellent complete surveys, as well as dazzling performances of individual concertos, such as Sviatoslav Richter’s account of the Second, Vladimir Horowitz or Martha Argerich’s performances of the Third, or Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli’s unsurpassed version of the Fourth.
