Lazar Berman, a bear of a man whom The Times of London called ‘one of the last unabashed exponents of the Romantic tradition of Russian pianism’, was known for the power of his playing and for his prodigious technique, but was also capable of great delicacy at the keyboard. The core of his repertoire was the great Romantic and post-Romantic works, from Beethoven to Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Emil Gilels referred to him as a ‘phenomenon of the musical world’. Eloquence presents his complete Deutsche Grammophon recordings over five titles.

The Moments musicaux written in 1896, are products of Rachmaninov’s early maturity: at the ripe age of 23. The Corelli Variations, his last piano work,is considered, among Rachmaninov aficionados, to be one of his finest works. And while Berman recorded juts six of the Preludes (making one wish he’d recorded them all), they represent some of the finest recorded performances of these pieces. This reissue presents all of Berman’s Rachmaninov recordings for Deutsche Grammophon on a single album, with the first release on CD of the Moments musicaux.