[Emperor Palpatine]

"Now much of the talent playing it at the highest level is Asian."


I must disagree. While the technical perfection is there and often awesome, the playing is either cold with no soul or with cloyingly exaggerated effects just a little too calculated.

Witness Lang Lang's butchery of the Rachmaninoff Concerti. He totally misses the point of the music. Sergei Vassiliyevitch would spin in his grave if he ever heard it.

If you want to hear how they're supposed to be done, listen to Van Cliburn, Jorge Bolet, and Lazar Berman play them, or go straight to the horse's mouth and listen to Rachmaninoff's own recordings.

[arrogantsob]

Perhaps you should reread my comment and rethink what I said.  The “highest level” is the concert stages and major record companies.  My comment is true.  I said nothing of interpretative power or insight.

Nor do I believe Van Cliburn’s Rachmaninoff 2d is the best.  Many critics believed he was rather ham-handed.  My favorite by him is the Brahms 2d, Tschaikovsky and the “Emperor”.

I must say that one of the most incredible live events I ever attended was YoYo Ma playing all the Bach Cello Sonatas. But he cannot be said to be “Asian” I suppose but American.