My favorite is a little-known performance by Vladimir Viardo with the late Edouard Mata conducting the Dallas Symphony. My former favorite was Cliburn and Kondrashin after Cliburn's historic win in the Tchaikovsky competition. I think Horowitz's performance was trailblazing and earns an authoritative nod because Rachmaninov so admired the way Horowitz played it, but I much prefer Cliburn's account.

It's also important to recognize that there are two cadenzas. The one that most people play is the original, but I prefer the alternate one that both Cliburn and Viardo chose to play.

my two favorites are: volodos/levine and horowitz/reiner.

the second LP i ever bought was gilels/karajan (1954) but it has disappeared altogether into the ether. does anyone know if it has ever been reissued?

I love Argerich for sheer power, but cast my vote for Horowitz.

no contest - Horowitz!....and I hope you use the Fritz Reiner recording. A stunning performance and excellent supportive conducting.

Martha Argerich is great!!!

I choose Argerich's rendition for her supreme virtuosity and passion.

I vote for Argerich

No contest ! Vladimir Horowitz.
Thank you.

Vladimir Horowitz - above all of them.

Horowitz.
But I agree that we should hear all of them during the next few days. Please let us know when they will be aired.

Which Horowitz recording are we actually talking about here? WQXR ought to be a little more specific, as the maestro made several, all of which are probably known to those of us voting. If it's the 1941 with Barbirolli, my vote goes to that one for sure. If it's the later one with Ormandy, well, then my vote would definitely go to Argerich...

They are all wonderful but I choose Argerich.

My vote is for Horowitz. There is no pianist who can play Rachmaninoff like he does. Remember that his soul is Russian.

For virtuosity...
I really think Martha Argerich stands out from the rest...She grabbed my attention and pulled me in without a struggle.
If I hadn't heard her rendition, I would have picked Horowitz.

Thank you for making my favorite radio station so accessable. This past year has been such a treat for me....I've made you my "home" on my computer!

Apparently I'm the only one who likes Ashkenazy's performance. Go Vladimir (A. not H.)!

Horowitz, please

Actually I prefer the one played by Rachmaninoff himself. By the way I have a copy on 78 RPM.
Both records and binder are in excellent condition, I wonder if its rare?

La fabulosa de Argentina!! Thanks.

No one denies all four are great. But after listening to Leif Ove Andsnes, I vote for him. This was clear beauty and a depth of feeling that I did not get from the others. I am not Norwegian and I call them as I feel them.

Argerich owns this one, no doubt.

Horowitz....he learned this work with
Rachmaninoff playing the second
piano(orchestra part)thus an authentic
reading.

Argerich please, then early Horowitz tomorrow or the next day

WITHOUT DOUBT ARGERICH.

Horowitz? Horowitz.Horowitz!

I love the Andsnes,but the final choice is Horowitz always and always.

Horowitz...he learned this work with
Rachmaninoff playing the second
piano(orchestra part)most authentic
performance to be heard.

Martha please. Jorge Bolet another day.

Why was Sviatoslav Richter not included?

Horowitz please - but does he have to play @ 4: PM ?

Thanks,

Just being funny.

Midge,

Good morning. I vote for the Horowitz version of Rocky 3.

Thank you.

Paula Whitney Best, MA, JD

Horowitz!!!

All great pianists, all great interpereters of this work...so hard to choose.
I would like to mention a favorite of mine: Alexis Weissenberg with Leonard Bernstein and L'Orchestre du l'Isle de Paris on EMI. Long out of print except for one movement in a big box collection. This performance goes deeper into the heart of darkness than any other I've ever heard, so it doesn't rate as an audience pleaser, but Bernstein and Weissenberg are fully in accord and structure the piece with infinite care and sense of direction. A very unique interpretation.

Today, Andsnes! Tomorrow, Argerich!, Friday, Horowitz, and Saturday, Ashkenazy. I'm not greedy :-). I just adore what each brings to this amazing concerto.

Just last week I was discussing this very question with Ruth Slenczynska. Ruth's argument compels me to vote for Argerich.

My three favorites recordings of the Rachmaninoff are : the 1941 recording with Horowitz and Toscanini. The Evgeny Kissin with Seji Ozawa and the Boston and the Lazar Berman with Claudio Abbado and the LOS which I think is of unsurpassed quality.
So I voted for Horowitz.
Thank you for giving your listeners a voice in "programing" our radio station....

Horowitz please!

Martha Argerich, please

Argerich is unbelievable -- among the best ever!

I say Horowitz play Rock 3 when he came out of a long retirement - it was in Los Angeles. I couldn't breathe for the entire performance an there tears rolling down by the time it ended. A never-to-be-forgotten experience

@benita: you're right. -
but from all of these four ecxeptionell players: horowitz
was the only one to really know the notes and rachmaninoff himself... -

and again: thanks from the middle of europe to the staff of wqxr!!!
looking foreward to "nixon in china"!

d.

If it's Rachmaninoff, it has to be Horowitz.
I have a remastered recording of the 3rd Concerto performed by him. It is magnificent, and in my opinion, definitive.

Leif Ove Andsnes wins my vote. His playing is always poetic and virtuosic, but at the service of the music, not his ego. And no matter how loud, it's never percussive, rather soaring and singing.

Martha Argerich is in a class by herself, especially when performing a piece that is so technically demanding. Please, please, let her play this concerto.

Horowitz - so hard to decide. Would have loved to see all three play together! Yes, I'm a dreamer.

Argerich.

I know only Leif Ova Andsnes's version because I own the CD. While it is good, I'd really love to hear Vlady. The nostalgia and mystique are irresistable.

Martha Argerich - clean performance, lighter touch, did not hammer away at the keyoard

I heard the early Rach 3 played by Jorge Bolet on WQXR in the last two weeks. It was an early versio and I thought rather tame. However, I heard him play the Rach 3 at Carnegie Hall, sometime in the 1980s, and it was electric! Every phrase was thoughtful and delicately delineated without disturbing the horizontal lines. The contrasts between gentle themes and the development of the stormy passages was just amazing. I love Martha Argerich's playing, but Bolet was at his heights for this performance. I bought an LP immediately! (Yes, Virginia, people played records!) I have never been able to get a CD of the same concert. I would love to hear the Carnegie Hall version again. But I am sure, you will choose another pianist this time.

Rachmaninoff as a composer put notes together in a way as to discover sonorities in the piano no one had ever heard before.
Horowitz as a pianist created tone that no one had ever heard before.
The combination of the two is the meeting of the titans and the culmination of two-and-a-half centuries of piano building.
The others are worth hearing, some other time.

I grew up with the amazing Horowitz, which has no real equal. But let's hear Argerich this time -- she has that electricity that is hers alone.

Byron Janis:)

All are wonderful BUT, Horowitz in the man!

Ashkenazy

Martha Argerich, no contest.

Horowitz

Rachmaninoff seized playing this concerto himself after he heard Horowitz. So, let's trust Rachmaninoff and let Horowitz to play. But who knows, if Rachmaninoff would live longer and have a knowledge of Argerich...

Horowitz

Horowitz and it's not even close.

I have to say Ashkenazy's cadenza is quite amazing.

Ashkenazy.

Argerich, all fire and ice

Short of the original by Rachmaninoff himself, Horowitz has to be the choice,
although Martha Argerich is a close second, I think.

Only Horowitz of course. He owned that concerto, performed with the New York Philharmonic and Ormandy.

I am happy to see 2 of my choices. Please no Ashkenazy. Horowitz's 1930 recording of Rach. 3 is good--the later recording (1970s) is not good at all. I heard it live. I had a number of conversations with Horowitz years ago when I managed a record store in LA. His recordings up to 1950s on RCA are good--a few pieces of the Carnegie Hall 1960s is good too.
I voted for Andnes--sound quality is great--Horowitz's 1930 recording is in a separate category altogether.

All wizards of the keyboard. But I heard Horowitz play this in London back in the 50s, and I had tears in my eyes.

Horowitz--the performance transmits electricity.

They're all excellent but Horowitz, unsurprisingly, is in a class of his own. Horowitz, please.