Rachmaninoff: 9 Etudes-Tableaux (Lugansky, Hayroudinoff, Sofronitsky)

Rachmaninoff’s second set of Etudes-Tableaux is, if anything, even fuller, more finely textured, and darker than the first. If you have not heard of Hayroudinoff (whose critically celebrated recordings are mostly familiar to Rachmaninoff/Tchaikovsky specialists), then you must listen to this, for his playing is spectacular. Lugansky is superb, as always, but Hayroudinoff brings a glorious warmth and vigour to his playing. Where Lugansky often veils the music with impressionistic filigree (a perfectly legiti