Christina Ortiz - Addinsell: 'Warsaw' Concerto, Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.2, Litolff: Scherzo (1986)

This is one of my favorite recordings with Ortiz's renditions of the Rachmaninov and Addinsell ranking with some of the best I've heard.
For me, the real attraction of this recording, however, is Gottschalk's "Grand Fantasia Triumfal" (Variations on the Brazilian National Anthem). Although originally a solo piano piece, it was arranged for piano and orchestra by Samuel Adler, which I recall hearing on a budget recording from the 1980s that I've long lost. In all honesty, it didn't really grab me as worthwhile. However, on this recording, pianist Ortiz and Chris Hazell (the producer of this recording) re-worked Adler's arrangement into something far more exciting and noble. The anthem tune is very appealing to begin with, and the subsequent variations are glittering and at times comical and then grand, with the interplay between piano and orchestra evoking a military march and band and then an elegant-sounding New Orleans honky-tonk (as paradoxical as that may sound!). Highly recommended!