Rachmaninov Moment musical N.5: Rubato or rather regular beat?

[quasimodo]

Your argumented opinion, please  ?

[shasta]

Not sure what you mean... 

If I remember, 16/5 is an adagio.  Obviously, you don't want to play it as if you have a metronome ticking away, but you also don't want to rubato it up so much that it sounds like schmaltzy "lounge piano."

It's phrasing should be soft and careful, very smooth and thoughtful - - - more akin to 16/1 or 3/3 or 23/4. 

Hope this helps!  Good luck - - - the MMs are a fabulous set that are strangely underplayed.  The 16/4 is a riot to perform.


 

[quasimodo]

Hope this helps!  Good luck - - - the MMs are a fabulous set that are strangely underplayed.  The 16/4 is a riot to perform.

My guess is that either they are close to "unplayable" (as you said No.4, but N.2 and 6 seem to be incredibly difficult as well) or too "easy" (3 and 5 do not address vertiginous technic, 1 is in between with fast scale runs but rather quiet).
They totally deserve their name. To play the whole set, you need to be a consumate musician.
My favourite is No.2, the summum of musical insanity.