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The first release in Valery Gergiev’s Rachmaninov Symphony cycle features a magnificent performance of the Second Symphony, recorded in September 2008 at the Barbican. Rachmaninov’s vast Second Symphony was composed when he was at the pinnacle of his careers as composer, pianist and conductor. Filled with emotion and brimming with beautiful melodies, it is a masterpiece and the epitome of the Romantic symphony. This recording will be followed by the First and Third Symphonies as well as the Symphonic Dances. Forthcoming releases include Stravinksy’s Oedipus Rex and Les Noces on the Mariinsky label. Later in the year Gergiev conducts music by Debussy and Ravel on LSO Live and Wagner’s Parsifal also on Mariinsky. Gergiev conducts a Stravinsky festival with the New York Philharmonic in late April, before conducting the LSO in London, Dublin and Germany during May.
Concert reviews:
“performance of edge-of-the-seat exhilaration ... This time it was Rachmaninov’s Symphony No 2 that brought out Gergiev’s magisterial best” The Guardian
“The LSO’s sound had apt richness, depth and bloom ... a rare blend of freedom, momentum and underlying restless energy” Daily Telegraph
“Gergiev is a man who works by instinct. Music that thrives on heart and soul - above all the Russian romantics - brings out the best in him” Financial Times
Symphony No. 2: I. Largo - Allegro Moderato
Symphony No. 2: II. Allegro Molto
Symphony No. 2: III. Adagio
Symphony No. 2: IV. Allegro Vivace
August 2010
“Gergiev has the sensibility to put on the pressure and to foster flexibility as the natural contours of the music demand...[He] has a feel for the romantic urgency of the music as well as its lyrical impulse and the LSO responds as if its life depends on it.”
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Symphony No. 2: I. Largo - Allegro Moderato
