Howard Shelley Pt1-5 Sergey Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.2 C minor Op.18 1. Moderato

Howard Shelley Pt1-5 Sergey Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.2 C minor Op.18 1. Moderato
Howard Shelley Pt2-5 Sergey Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.2 C minor Op.18 2a. Adagio sostenuto
Howard Shelley Pt3-5 Sergey Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.2 C minor Op.18 2b. Adagio sostenuto
Howard Shelley Pt4-5 Sergey Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.2 C minor Op.18 3a. Allegro scherzando
Howard Shelley Pt5-5 Sergey Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.2 C minor Op.18 3b. Allegro scherzando

Sergey Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor, Op.18
1 Moderato Part1-5
2 Adagio sostenuto Parts2,3-5
3 Allegro scherzando Parts4,5-5
Howard Shelley, piano

an operbathosa video

Moderato: C minor
The opening movement begins with a series of bell-like tollings on the piano that build tension, eventually climaxing in the introduction of the main theme. In this first section, the orchestra carries the Russian-character melody while the piano makes an accompaniment made of arpeggios riddled with half steps. After the statement of the long first theme, a quicker transition follows until the more lyrical second theme, in E flat major, is presented.

The agitated and unstable development borrows motives from both themes changing keys very often and giving the melody to different instruments while a new musical idea is slowly formed. The music builds in a huge climax as if the work was going to repeat the first bars of the work, but the recapitulation is going to be quite different.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Concerto_No._2_(Rachmaninoff)

Howard Shelley Part1-2
Howard Gordon Shelley OBE (born 9 March 1950) is a British pianist and conductor. He was educated at Highgate School and the Royal College of Music. He is married to fellow pianist Hilary Macnamara, with whom he has performed and recorded in a two-piano partnership, and they have two sons.
Performer
After winning the premier prize at the Royal College of Music at the end of his first year, Howard Shelley's career began with a successful London recital and a televised Promenade concert with the London Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas in the same season. Since then he has performed regularly throughout the UK, Europe, Scandinavia, North America, Russia, Australia, and the Far East. He has also made over seventy-five commercial recordings.

In 1994, an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Music was conferred on him by HRH The Prince of Wales.

As pianist he has performed, broadcast and recorded around the world with leading orchestras and conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Pierre Boulez, Sir Adrian Boult, Colin Davis, Mariss Jansons, Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Kurt Sanderling. During the fortieth anniversary of Sergei Rachmaninoff's death he became the first pianist ever to perform the composer's complete solo piano works in concert[citation needed]. The five London recitals, in London's Wigmore Hall, were broadcast in their entirety by the BBC.

To mark the fiftieth anniversary of Rachmaninoff's death Howard Shelley gave many concerts including a recital in the Leipzig Gewandhaus on the death-day itself and a recital at Rachmaninoff's villa in Lucerne at the invitation of the composer's grandson. He has given complete cycles of Rachmaninoff concertos with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Beethoven concertos with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Mozart concerto series with the London Mozart Players, Camerata Salzburg and the Munich Symphony Orchestra. Howard Shelley also featured in a documentary of Rachmaninoff shown on BBC television.

Shelley was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours.[1]

Recordings
His many recordings for [Chandos]link title, Hyperion and EMI include Rachmaninov's complete piano music and concertos, series of Mozart, Hummel, Mendelssohn, Moscheles and Cramer concertos as well as all Gershwin's works for piano & orchestra and a series of British concertos including Alwyn, Bridge, Howells, Rubbra, Scott, Tippett and Vaughan Williams. A recording of Schumann, Grieg and Saint-Saens Piano Concertos, the first time all three have been available together, is released on Chandos in March 9.

Conductor
In 1985 Howard Shelley made his professional debut as a conductor. As conductor he has performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Filarmonica de la Ciudad de Mexico, Munich Symphony, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and West Australian Symphony Orchestra, amongst many others.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Shelley

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[CenaniHarun]

Esta es una performance excelente ! Magnificent.Magnificent.!!!

[Nornegest]

Magnificent. Few pianists can match his elegant phrasing.

[snaaptaker]

A lovely performance.

If you have it, could you please upload Shelley's recording of the Rach4? IMO, it's the first recording in nearly 40 years that finally equals (in his own way) Michelangeli's.