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The compositions on this CD were inspired by pictorial or literary works and were originally for orchestra and then transcribed. Lydia Sourial performs these works on the recently restored Kern organ of Saint Pothin in Lyons. The richness of timbres and wide range of stops give it remarkable evocative power. | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Rachmaninov - Symphonic Dances, Isle of the Dead & The Rock
Avie’s tenth release with the RLPO and third with their music director Vasily Petrenko, is the first in a series of orchestral works and concertos by Rachmaninov. It features the Symphonic Dances, and the symphonic poems Isle of the Dead and The Rock. Avie’s fruitful association with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra yields its tenth release, and the third with Vasily Petrenko, the youngest Music Director in the RLPO’s illustrious history and winner of the Classic FM/Gramophone Young Artist of the Year award in 2007. A native of St. Petersburg, Petrenko appropriately continues his exploration of Russian repertoire with the first in a series of orchestral works and concertos by Sergei Rachmaninov. “The Liverpudlians could easily be mistaken for a crack Russian orchestra – the key ingredient is the commitment of the playing, the sense of an orchestra at its peak.” Financial Times “Everybody wants Vasily Petrenko, the blond, galvanising young Russian who, in two years as principal conductor, has transformed the artistic profile of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Feel that crackle of electricity...the orchestra’s ensemble spirit is so tight that you could cut yourself on the music’s edges.” The Times “Petrenko and the RLPO bring freshness to all three [works], responding sensitively and shrewdly to the romantic and dark-hued undertows of the earlier works and to the piquancy of the later one. Petrenko instinctively conveys the essential quality of soul that the interpretation of Rachmaninoff requires.” The Telegraph, 18th February 2010 ***** “Petrenko’s galvanising effect on the Royal Philapudlians continues to be documented rewardingly on disc...He achieves a wonderfully integrated blend of orchestral sound, yet his attention to details of instrumentation and dynamic is achieved without artificial highlighting.” Sunday Times, 21st February 2010 **** “Petrenko master… of encouraging expressive phrasing in counterpoint; the woodwind rockings around the heartaching saxophone melody at the centre of the first dance are as important as the main event, and the flurries which accompany a very slowly kindled reprise of the second-movement Valse triste... make the hair stand on end.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2010 “Vasily Petrenko conducts the RPO on tremendous form in a precise and dramatic performance of both pieces, plus the tone poem "The Isle of the Dead". Worth it for the woodwind alone.” The Independent on Sunday, 28th March 2010 “The Symphonic Dances, The Isle of the Dead and The Rock all have a distinctive Rachmaninov stamp, for which Petrenko has a sure ear, coupled with a stylistic acuity that enables him to point out the differences between the later and the earlier music” Gramophone Magazine, May 2010 “the arresting performances by Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra provide a truly unforgettable triptych, marvellously played and given full-blooded, demonstration-quality recording...The Liverpool performance is tremendously compelling, and this is one of the finest non-concertante Rachmaninov CDs in the catalogue.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Rachmaninov - Symphony No. 1
Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, Pavel Kogan “This is a full-blooded reading but one that also maintains shrewd perspective...The quiet tug of Charon's oars at the start of The Isle of the Dead heralds a performance of palpable atmosphere, in which the orchestra radiates a spectrum of ardour and hushed apprehension.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Rachmaninov - Symphony No. 2 & Piano Concerto No. 3
Rachmaninov: | Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27 Recorded: September 1993, Philharmonic Hall, St. Petersburg St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Mariss Jansons The Isle of the Dead - Symphonic Poem, Op. 29 Recorded: October 1975, Kingsway Hall, London London Symphony Orchestra, André Previn Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 Recorded live: 8-11 March 1995, Philharmonic Hall, Oslo Leif Ove Andsnes (piano) Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Paavo Berglund Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 Recorded: December 1974, No.1 Studio, Abbey Road, London London Symphony Orchestra, André Previn |
“Andsnes's Third Concerto is the only disappointment among the classics presented here, though EMI might have gone for Previn's account of the Second Symphony rather than Jansons's.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2009 *** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 1
Regarded as one of the most remarkable composers of the twentieth century, Serge Rachmaninoff wrote three romantically inclined symphonies, two of which are now standard orchestral repertoire. However, the premiere of Symphony No. 1 was such a disaster that Rachmaninoff refrained from composing anything more for the next three years. The conductor, Glazunov, is reputed to have been drunk, and Rachmaninoff was unable to attend the entire performance. He reacted by tearing up the score. Thankfully for posterity, the instrumental parts were preserved and rediscovered in 1945, permitting the work to be restored. It is a work full of youthful fervour, distinctive and sweeping themes, and nationalist sentiments, and is now widely regarded as a vivid example of his early talent. It is complemented here by the ‘Youth Symphony’, the first movement of a projected but never completed symphony in D minor, composed when Rachmaninoff was only seventeen, and the great symphonic poem The Isle of the Dead, inspired by Arnold Böcklin’s painting of the same name which Rachmaninoff had seen on display in Paris in 1907. Composed in 1909, it is still a relatively early work, but contains some of the dark Russian spiritual qualities which Rachmaninoff was to develop further in his later compositions. “Rachmaninov's First Symphony...here receives a landmark performance from the BBC Philharmonic and Gianandrea Noseda. When you listen to it alongside a mature masterpiece, particularly such a darkly atmospheric performance of The Isle of the Dead as this one, it is possible to appreciate how Rachmaninov could deem passages in the symphony to be "weak, childish, forced and bombastic", yet Noseda demonstrates the music's power, eloquent beauty and structural cohesion.
Written when he was still in his late teens, the First Symphony already displays distinctive Rachmaninov fingerprints in harmonic terms and in the shaping of melodic ideas, and is in the grip of the fatalism that is rarely absent from his music. Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic recognise this general tenor, but the spectrum for expression of it is broad, from vigorous passion in the first movement and finale to the wistful rumination of the central Larghetto.” The Telegraph, 21st June 2008 “Nothing could be more liquid or gloomy than [Noseda's] reading of the superb symphonic poem The Isle of the Dead. His gifts for mood-juggling and structural flow ensure equally fine accounts of the student Youth Symphony and the composer’s official, stormy Symphony No 1. The full Chandos sound makes everything glow in the dark, especially the shadowy scherzo.” The Times, 6th June 2008 **** “With the BBC Phil, he delves deep into the dark, gloomy recesses of the Russian soul, brilliantly evoking the composer’s brooding, headily chromatic tone poem The Isle of the Dead...Chandos’s brilliant recording [of Symphony 1] enhances a performance that takes us on an emotional rollercoaster ride: the passion and despair of the composer’s unrequited love for a married woman is drawn with febrile drama here.” Sunday Times, 1st June 2008 **** “Rachmaninov's First Symphony of 1895... published only after the composer's death. Gianandrea Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic have the work's measure and their performance has a full-blooded intensity and fire. The Isle of the Dead, haunting and powerful in conception, is an undisputed masterpiece. Noseda captures the work's concentration and anguish with its inexorable sense of movement.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2008 ***** “Accomplished and easy to enjoy; but, in a crowded marketplace, not really a front-runner.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2008  BBC Music Magazine
Orchestral Choice - July 2008 |
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| |  | Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 2 & Isle of the Dead
“a searingly powerful reading of The Isle of the Dead, which I count the finest performance of all in Ashkenazy's Rachmaninov series” Gramophone Magazine | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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