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Selected comparisons.No doubt critics have been sharpening their pens in anticipation of Valentina Lisitsa’s Rachmaninov concerto cycle, which is bound to attract far more than the usual amount of interest due to her extraordinary YouTube popularity. In her notes she admits two things. One is that the recording sessions transpired with virtually no rehearsals or pre-session performance collaborations between herself and conductor Michael Francis. The other is that she purports to base certain aspects of her interpretations on Rachmaninov’s own recordings, along with her determination to avoid the grand old ‘Soviet tradition of butchering Rachmaninov’, where the men show off how fast and loud they can play and the women show off with sexy, languid rubatos. As it happens, Francis and the London Symphony Orchestra provide consistently world-class, shapely orchestral frameworks and beautifully characterised first-desk solos throughout, albeit without the Hough/Litton edition’s stylistic finish, absolute synchronicity and carefully considered tempo relationships.

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For her part, Lisitsa doesn’t really channel Rachmaninov’s pianism. Take the main theme in the recapitulation of the First Concerto’s opening movement, for instance, where her rubatos sound arbitrary next to the composer’s pinpoint timing. Furthermore, Hough’s greater variety of articulation better emulates the composer’s dazzling way with the finale’s cross-rhythmic patterns than Lisitsa’s more generic accuracy. Routine creator free.