Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Completed in 1936, two years after the hugely popular Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Rachmaninov’s Third Symphony was considered by the composer to be one of his finest works. Both this and the Symphonic Dances, his last work, offer a summation of his late style in blending intense rhythmic energy with rich romanticism. Leonard Slatkin and the DSO’s recording of the Second Symphony (8572458) was hailed by BBC Music Magazine as “a performance warmed by musicians who clearly love this symphony”.

The Third Symphony and the Symphonic Dances are late Rachmaninov and go together very well. Both illustrate Rachmaninov taking new directions in his compositions, sparer in the Symphony and rhythmically charged in the Dances.

These live performances from Toronto with the CBC Orchestra and the 1960 performance from Detroit with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra were digitally remastered in 2011. Accompanied by Misha Mishakoff, Violin and Albert Tripton, Flute (on the Brandenberg recording), this shows Glenn Gould at his finest.

Born in Minsk, Belarus, Alla Borzova has received numerous prestigious awards for her highly imaginative music since moving to the United States in 1993. Songs For Lada is a theatrical cantata which explores the world of childhood through rhymes, dances and stories, illustrated by effects including folk instruments and birdsong. To The New World portrays an imaginary ship bearing immigrant groups whose traditional music suggests their thoughts and feelings at the prospect of joining the great cultural “melting pot” of America.

Internationally acclaimed American conductor Leonard Slatkin began his appointment as Music Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in September 2008. In addition to his post at the DSO, August 2011 marked the start of his tenure as Music Director of the Orchestre National de Lyon in France.

Following a litany of requests, Dorati's supreme recording of Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite is reissued on Eloquence together with the original coupling of Robert Russell Bennett's swaggering and masterly orchestral synthesis from Porgy and Bess. As a bonus, Howard Hanson's bright Mercury recording of Grofe's Mississippi Suite fills out this reissue.

Zubin Mehta's LAPO recording of Strauss's Sinfonia Domestica has long been considered a benchmark and after a considerable absence from the catalogue reappears here, coupled with the later Parergon for piano (left hand) and orchestra. Equally celebrated is Mehta's reading of the Alpine Symphony, and the set concludes with one of Strauss's earliest tone poems, Macbeth.