Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme of Chopin, Op.22 (Chochieva)

Rachmaninoff's Variations on a Theme of Chopin are often gently disparaged as a juvenile work -- too long, too rambling, too dark and remorseless. Chochieva's stunning performance reveals this work for the masterpiece it truly is. Where other pianists regularly leave out variations (something Rachmaninoff himself often did in performance), Chochieva plays all 22 variations, and brings to them a great deal of air and light (seriously -- all the dark passages are played with such tenderness!), along with breathtaking phrasing, remarkable contrapuntal clarity, and a vivid sense of imagination. Neither is there self-indulgence -- the tempi are brisk, with Chochieva's recording clocking in at about 3 minutes shorter than the average. And thus the Op.22 is revealed not at all as long or rambling, or dark -- instead, it is tightly knit, full of warmth and generosity, one of the most relentlessly beautiful works Rachmaninoff ever produced (listen to those slow variations -- I really don't think that Rachmaninoff, in one work, ever wrote so many pages so replete with such haunting and luminous beauty).

00:00 -- Theme
01:09 -- Var. 1, Moderato [MOVEMENT I]
01:53 -- Var. 2, Allegro
02:08 -- Var. 3
02:23 -- Var. 4
03:12 -- Var. 5, Meno mosso
03:37 -- Var. 6, Meno mosso*
04:40 -- Var. 7, Allegro
04:58 -- Var. 8
05:18 -- Var. 9
05:39 -- Var.10
06:10 -- Var.11, Lento [MOVEMENT II]
07:38 -- Var.12, Moderato
09:44 -- Var.13, Largo
10:58 -- Var.14, Moderato* (Some truly stunning contrapuntal voicing + dynamic control going on here. Note also how carefully constructed this variation is: the middle voice contains figuration that is borrowed from those little twists in the high registers in Var.13)
12:19 -- Var.15, Allegro scherzando
13:41 -- Var.16, Lento* (One of Rachmaninoff's most inspired yet least-known melodies. It sounds destined for a piano concerto of some sort.)
14:50 -- Var.17, Grave
16:24 -- Var.18, Piu mosso
17:14 -- Var.19, Allegro vivace* [MOVEMENT III]
18:27 -- Var.20, Presto
19:33 -- Var.21, Andante* (A gorgeous and rather Brahmsian canon which ends in an powerful transitionary passage to the final variation)
22:10 -- Var 22, Maestoso* (Think of how much this sounds like Lyapunov in the middle section!)