A lot of the reason for that criticism of his Rach Two was Reiner’s rather bombastic approach to the music. But no one produces such a warm piano tone as Cliburn does in that recording. He plays this gorgeous sounding Steinway that was several decades old and had settled very nicely. One of the most gorgeous recorded piano sounds ever is just one chord hit in the buildup to the climax of the opening Moderato.
I also like the way he, (or they), scale the tempi back ever so slightly and luxuriate in all those lush harmonies and passing tones. His pedalling is flawless, (especially in the allargando bass arpeggios towards the coda of the first movement and throughout the Andante.)
Pianists just don’t play that way anymore. Recent performances of the Rachmaninoff Second are often overly fast with clangorous marcato chords a la Prokofieff. Much like Graffman’s awful performance of it with Bernstein. I’ve even been guilty of it myself a few times in that concerto, but sometimes you hit the negative trifecta of terrible acoustics, a bad piano, and a stubborn know-it-all conductor.
Although if you want your socks totally blown off in a great performance of Sergei’s Second that is something of a throwback, listen to Andrei Gavrilov’s,,,,,if you can find it. Its worth it.
Reiner bombastic? He was a superb orchestral technician who’s intepretations were quite subtle.