Rachmaninoff PC3 on YouTube

I came across Martha Argerich's legendary performance of Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto with Riccardo Chailly and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra on YouTube, and knew that I needed to link to it here. It's an outstanding performance, sure to last. Other excellent recordings of this work include Mikhail Pletnev with Mstislav Rostropovich/RNO, Arcadi Volodos with James Levine/BPO, and Stephen Hough with Andrew Litton/DSO, though I don't believe any are on YouTube. Argerich plays the original, less frequently recorded cadenza. This interpretation sounds as if it's emanating from behind the iron curtain, evoking the rubble of a ruined - or at least decadent - and war-torn city... no matter that the performers (Argerich from Argentina, Chailly from Italy) have no Soviet heritage.

Movement I, Part 1

Movement I, Part 2

Movement II, Part 1

Movement II, Part 2

Movement III, Part 1 - what a tempo!!

Movement III, Part 2 - check out the cool orchesta effect at 1:15-1:52

I'm still hoping for a Chailly CSO appointment - he deserves it, and could bring a sorely-needed recording contract back to that orchestra.

A recording of Yefim Bronfman/Valery Gergiev/Vienna PO playing the same is also on the site. It's a performance with a lot of life and muscle - more of a straight-ahead, modern performance than the Argerich:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5 (including a lovely performance of the C-minor Scarlatti Sonata, K. 11)

Part 6 (including Chopin's Revolutionary Etude Op. 10 no. 12)

And finally, Horowitz playing it with Zubie and the NYPO from 1978. Some memory and finger slips, and Mehta somehow manages to follow Horowitz's wildly varying tempos, but everyone seems to like it, so I'm linking to it. The second and third movements go significantly better than the first - it's still a great performance. God, his piano was bright.