As a pianist with an affinity for the romantic, my introduction to Earl Wild and Rachmaninov was when, in the 1960s, my mother bought us the Readers Digest set of records (when they first came out) from which this CD is made -- it was love at first sight (hearing)! (Guess who took the records with him when he went off to college??!). I thought these were wonderful recordings and interpretations when I first heard them (despite my youth and inexperience then), and now approx. 40 years later (having heard a number of other recordings in the intervening years), my opinion is unchanged. Being a romantic pianist in the spirit of Rachmaninov and Horowitz, Earl Wild sets a very high standard here. It doesn't get any better than this. Only two regrets -- the lack of the full uncut version of the 3rd (the cuts were sanctioned by the composer in a time when audience attention spans were not nearly so long as they are today), and the notable and very regrettable absence of the Isle of the Dead from this CD (which was also on the original set of 1960s records -- an evocative, exciting tone poem in its own right, rendered as well or better than any other I've heard by Horsenstein and company. Wild's 1st and 2nd concerti and Rhapsody from this set are the best I've heard and are still the standard by which I judge other performances of the same pieces (ditto for the Isle of the Dead).
