Sergei Rachmaninov the Pianist

"His playing presents a delicious paradox... individualistic almost to the point of recreation, while so utterly natural, so profoundly honest, you could hardly imagine the music otherwise. [Beethoven Variations[: tautness of playing, absolute rhythmic security, burbling pianissimos, knife-edged sforzandos, artful rubato and unremitting sense of purpose... delicate observations occur by the bar... [trans-criptions]: (Mendelssohn; Rimsky-Korsakov; Tchaikovsky): scintillating, full of musical interest. His reworking of Liebesleid is extremely beautiful. [his own music]... each sounds as if spontaneously improvised... The C sharp minor Prelude retains it's magic through perfect timing. That is perhaps where Rachmaninov remains most inimitable: it wasn't how he struck the keys that mattered, but when." (Gramophone)