BBC Philharmonic, Gianandrea Noseda – Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 3 – Prince Rostislav – Caprice bohémien (2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:13:44 minutes | 1,25 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos

This is the sixth volume in our highly acclaimed Rachmaninoff series, performed by the BBC Philharmonic under Gianandrea Noseda. Of Symphony No. 1 on a previous volume in this series (CHAN10475), BBC Music magazine said: ‘Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic have the work’s measure and their performance has a full-blooded intensity and fire.’ The series has been well received by the public and reviewers alike, and many of the recorded works will be performed by Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic at this year’s Proms.

Symphony No. 3 is the most expressively Russian of all Rachmaninoff’s symphonies, particularly in the dance rhythms of the energetic finale. Rachmaninoff wrote the symphony for the Philadelphia Orchestra, having spoken fondly of the ensemble, calling it ‘my very favourite orchestra’. The premiere was conducted by the charismatic Leopold Stokowski, but reviews were mixed – leaning towards the negative – and it was not until the re-evaluation of Rachmaninoff’s works in the 1970s that this symphony finally got the recognition that it deserves.

Rarely recorded and performed today, the symphonic poem Prince Rostislav is one of Rachmaninoff’s earliest surviving compositions for orchestra. Based on a short ballad by Alexey Tolstoy, the highly atmospheric and evocative music speaks of the ill-fated Prince of Kiev who was tragically drowned in the Ukrainian river Dniepr.
Equally unfamiliar is Capriccio bohémien, the colourful fantasy by Rachmaninoff on a gypsy theme, which takes much of its inspiration from one of the composer’s other works, the opera Aleko, based on Pushkin’s The Gypsies.

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BBC Philharmonic, Gianandrea Noseda – Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 2 – The Rock (2010)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:14:48 minutes | 1,25 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos

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.

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BBC Philharmonic, Gianandrea Noseda – Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 1 – The Isle of the Dead – Youth Symphony (2008)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:14:34 minutes | 1,24 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos

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.

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