Rachmaninov: Prelude in G minor - Evgeny Kissin at the Proms

At the First Night of the 2000 Promenade Concerts in London’s Royal Albert Hall, Evgeny Kissin played Rachmaninov’s 2nd Piano Concerto and followed it with this stunning encore, the same composer’s Prelude in G minor. It is No. 5 in Rachmaninov’s Opus 23 set of 10 Preludes, dating from 1901. Please see additional note below. In view of the numerous comments about Kissin’s tempo, I’d like to repeat what I said in another reply here two years ago. This encore came at the end of a first half of a concert in which Kissin had just played the Rachmaninov 2nd Piano Concerto. Before that, the orchestra had played Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man“ and Stokowski’s arrangement of the Bach Toccata and Fugue in D minor. It was a hot July evening and the Royal Albert Hall was packed with a 5,000-strong audience. In addition, the BBC was televising it ’live’ as well broadcasting it on the radio. Doubtless Kissin had the broadcasting schedules at the back of his mind, as well as the fact that the bars were now open for the interval and the audience were ready to get to them! ... Still, they wouldn’t let him go, so he gave them some more music. I just think that the circumstances of the evening, plus the adrenaline of a “First Night of the Proms,“ helped to dictate his tempo and that it shouldn’t necessarily be compared to a recorded studio performance.