Rachmaninov: The Bells, Op. 35

The great Evgeny Svetlanov (1928–2002) was music director of the USSR State Orchestra (1965–2000) and also had permanent positions with the LSO, the Residentie Orchestra in the Hague and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

He frequently guest conducted the NHK Orchestra in Japan, the Orchestre National in Paris as well as the Philharmonia in London. May 2012 marks the 10th anniversary of his death and ICA mark this with a coupling of Rachmaninov’s The Bells and Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky. These two composers were very closely associated with the conductor. The performance of The Bells was taken from Svetlanov’s last concert in April 2002; he died one month later.

This is the seventh and final volume in our acclaimed Rachmaninoff series, which has been performed by the BBC Philharmonic under Gianandrea Noseda. They are joined in this recording by the Chorus of the Mariinsky Theatre and the soloists Svetla Vassileva, Misha Didyk, and Alexei Tanovitski. The disc was recorded live at this year’s Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, London.

Rachmaninoff composed his ‘choral symphony’ The Bells in 1913. It takes its inspiration from poems by Edgar Allan Poe in a Russian translation by the poet Konstantin Balmont. The first movement, evoking the chimes of silver bells on a winter sleigh ride, is unusually cheerful for both the composer and author, while ‘Wedding Bells’ blends the yearning of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde with a darker and more ominous undercurrent that carries through to the end. Of this Proms performance, The Guardian wrote: ‘The soloists soared, the choir bloomed, and Noseda powered the orchestra through thrilling climaxes to the funereal closing bars.’

In the brooding cantata Spring of 1902, the restlessness and lively use of percussion reflect the composer’s mindset at the time: He was hungry to write music once again after suffering from a three-year bout of writer’s block and depression. The work is based on a poem by Nikolay Nekrasov and describes the return of the Zelyoniy shum, or ‘green rustle’. The poem tells of a husband who, fraught with murderous thoughts towards his unfaithful wife during the winter season, is freed from his frustrations by the return of spring.

The Three Russian Songs are poignant, gem-like time capsules of a Russia now irretrievably lost. They were written in 1926 when Rachmaninoff was living and exhaustively touring as a pianist in America. Vladimir Wilshaw, Rachmaninoff’s old friend from student days, said of this work: ‘Only a man who loves his country could compose this way. Only a man who in his innermost soul is a Russian. Only Rachmaninoff could have composed this!’

Produced by Steve Epstein / Engineered by Richard King

José Serebrier (b. December 1938) is a Uruguayan-born conductor and composer of European ancestry with an international reputation based in New York. He conducts orchestras all over the world in all continents, including South America, USA, Spain and Turkey and in the 2010-2011 season he will conduct no less than 3 series of concerts in mainland China. For Warner Classics José Serebrier has recorded all the Glazunov Symphonies with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra to great critical acclaim, of which the most recent release is: Symphonies 1, 2, 3, 9 - 2564689042 (2CD)

In Moscow in April 2010, a live recording was made of maestro Serebrier conducting the closing concert of the 1st Rostropovich International Festival in the Tchaikovsky Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire of Music, featuring Rachmaninov’s great choral work ‘The Bells’.

The orchestra for this recording was the Russian National Orchestra (http://www.russianarts.org/rno/index.cfm), much recorded by Deutsche Grammophon, and regarded in a recent Gramophone poll (December 2008 : http://www.russianarts.org/rno/pressrelease.cfm?prid=081201.cfm) as one of the top symphony orchestras in the world alongside the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony and London Symphony Orchestras.

“Rachmaninoff was so often seen as the composer of pretty, rather banal melodies, but I believe we are now free enough to regard him more objectively and less ideologically. And if we do, it becomes apparent that this music was written by a man of great intellect, a master of musical form, a master of orchestral treatment, who continued to develop throughout the course of his life.” (Semyon Bychkov)