Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27 - download (MP3 & FLAC)

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

He frequently guest conducted the NHK Orchestra in Japan and the Orchestre National in Paris, as well as the Philharmonia Orchestra in London. May 2012 marked the tenth anniversary of his death and ICA celebrated this with a coupling of Rachmaninov’s The Bells – from Svetlanov’s last concert – and Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky, works by two composers who were very closely associated with the conductor.

Rachmaninov was, by his own account, Svetlanov’s favourite composer. This new live recording of his Symphony No.2 from the Royal Festival Hall in 1993 with the Philharmonia Orchestra has never been issued before.

The recording is in excellent stereo and Svetlanov was at his most exciting when caught live as opposed to working under studio conditions.

This is a riveting performance. To complete the CD is a rare live stereo recording of Svetlanov conducting Leonard Bernstein’s brilliant Candide Overture from the Edinburgh Festival in 1978. Svetlanov never recorded this in the studio and it appears here for the first time. ICA has received wonderful reviews for Svetlanov’s recordings of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.1 and Stravinsky’s Firebird Ballet (ICAC5007), Shostakovich’s Symphony No.10 (ICAC5036) and most recently Rachmaninov’s The Bells and Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky (ICAC5069).

Continuing the series of recordings made in the superb acoustics of London’s Cadogan Hall.

The Symphony No.2 is one of Rachmaninov’s most romantic and popular works.

Coupled with the haunting Vocalise in an intimate version for cello and piano.

Under Gianandrea Noseda, the BBC Philharmonic’s epic Rachmaninoff series continues with a recording of Symphony No.2, coupled with The Rock.

Unlikely his First Symphony, Symphony No.2 is standard orchestral repertoire. A recent concert at the Bridgewater Hall, elicited the review, ‘Noseda showed his remarkable affinity with Rachmaninoff’s style. He combines an ability to sustain the long structures of its emotional climaxes with a vocalistic approach to phrasing which lifts the tunes out of the texture and lefts them sing. It’s almost operatic in its vividness.’ City Life.

The challenge of making his mark with that ultimate big statement, a symphony, still faced Rachmaninoff as he headed into his mid-thirties. Posterity now accepts that he had probably cracked a tough nut with his First Symphony (CHAN 10475). Yet the 1897 premiere, poorly conducted under disputed circumstances by Glazunov, was so unfavourably received that it forced Rachmaninoff into creative silence for the next three years. Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony was drafted alongside an equally ambitious Second Piano Sonata in a charming garden villa in Dresden, where the whole family had settled in late 1906. The finished product turned out to be one of the longest of all Russian symphonies. Breadth, though, is of the essence of the Second Symphony’s wealth of lovingly wrought and subtly interlinked thematic material. As one critic observed at the 1908 St Petersburg premiere, conducted with his usual first-rate flexibility by Rachmaninoff, ‘the new E minor Symphony… may be slightly over long for the general audience, but how fresh, how beautiful it is’.

The accomplished fantasia of 1893, The Rock offers an excellent example of Rimsky-Korsakov’s orchestration as acknowledged by Rachmaninoff’s original dedication.

In the wake of his First Symphony’s catastrophic première, Rachmaninov took a decade before commencing his Second, painstakingly revising it before conducting the triumphant première in 1908.

Although haunted, like his First, by the Dies irae chant melody, the Second Symphony brims with Rachmaninov’s revitalised assurance as a composer, from its brooding opening to the vigorous grandeur of its conclusion.

This disc marks the start of a new collaborative relationship between Naxos and the Detroit SO under Leonard Slatkin..

“One could argue that no conductor today comprehends this music or frames its rugged profile more eloquently than Slatkin. This was a magnificent performance, a testament to the DSO's collective virtuosity and a ringing promise of a new chapter in its annals.” Detroit News on Slatkin’s inaugural concert as the conductor of the DSO

The second Symphony contains the very best of Rachmaninov: deliberately paced and rhythmically flexible it is propelled by that wonderful sense of melodic expansion of which he was such a master.

It is this monumental work that Lan Shui and his Singapore Symphony Orchestra have chosen to record as a celebration of the orchestra’s 30th anniversary. Founded in 1979 the SSO has become an important musical force in Asia, but is also gaining international recognition from its high-profile tours and its releases on BIS.

Recorded in 1951