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The concise but highly informative notes to this recording remind us that the opening of the finale was used as the title music to the BBC news magazine programme Panorama in the 1960's, and as a young teenager it was my first exposure to this work. As a further aside, the coda from the finale was also used over the end credits in the superb BBC documentary series, "The Lost Peace", a sequel to their epic "Great War" series.
The history of the symphony's failure at its premiere under a drunken Glazunov and its disappearance following this is well known, as is Rachmaninov's despair over the fiasco, but it is not quite accurate to suggest that he did not return to it other than to quote wistfully from it in his last orchestral work the Symphonic Dances. He did in fact sketch revisions of various sections from time to time-and discussed a complete revision with Ormandy in the 1940's which sadly did not materialise before his death.
The Performing Edition compiled from one set of orchestral parts and published in the USSR in 1947 is not the last word in terms of editions-there have emerged a number of versions all by the composer and varying in scoring, particularly with regard to percussion.
I've loved this work since my early teens, and although Rachmaninov's music is looked down upon as second rate by the intelligentsia, I'm happy to be one of the lesser intelligentsia that loves the romantic, dramatic and (worst crime of all!) melodic sweep of his music.
The bar was set phenomenally high in terms of recording by the 1966 Ormandy/Philadelphia recording, the first in stereo and still sounding magnificent, in which he opts for the "middle ground" in terms of Editions-he adds the glockenspiel and doubles brass and woodwind, but omits the rest of the ordnance section specified in the first version.
Later recordings from Svetlanov, Weller and Previn through to Ashkenazy and Maazel have eschewed all Rachmaninov's youthful excesses and played the more sophisticated "3rd" version, and it was not till Andrew Litton recorded it with the RPO that we got the full unadulterated and unexpurgated original version!
Happily, on this wonderful recording, Vasily Petrenko also uses the fully scored edition in what is the finest performance to date-truly startling and original, and despite what the SFL opines in his review that the RLPO is not a World Class Orchestra (define!), they give a world class performance on this recording and yield nothing in terms of brilliance to their colleagues from the USA, Holland and Germany! Liverpool rocks!!
The symphony is an extended set of variations on the "Dies Irae" motif from the Liturgy, a theme beloved by the composer and to which he returned repeatedly throughout his life.
Petrenko does not follow the majestic steady tempo of Ormandy and Ashkenazy throughout the work, and is even more interventionist than Maazel in changing tempo throughout each movement-whipping up the tempo or drawing back-and it results in the most fascinating interpretation yet.
From early in the first movement, we are aware of the presence of the extra percussion, with added use of cymbals, triangle, Turkish Crescent, tambourine, tam- tam, thunderous timps and cataclysmic bass drum.
The third movement is the most extraordinary-Petrenko creates a truly menacing sound world, with massed low strings counterbalancing scary muted trumpets, and then the sudden brief incursion of chimes and triangle at the apex of the movement (usually omitted). The effect is truly unsettling.
The finale struts off at a cracking martial tempo, very exciting and in a wonderful touch, Petrenko has the muted bugle calls on the trumpets -following the opening salvo- offstage-and fades them away. The effect is magical. While no orchestra, not even Karajan's BPO for Maazel can match the low strings of the Philadelphia for Ormandy which sound like a pack of Harley-Davison's revving up in the close balance given them by CBS, the Liverpudlians give them a good run for their money, and the weight of the orchestral playing matches its excellence throughout the work.
The coda is as shatteringly powerful as any with the possible exception of Ashkenazy, who takes a controversially slow tempo and adds massive weight, but in this work pervaded by "death always having the last card", no matter how sporadically man might triumph against fate, the overall conception of Petrenko leaves the listener overwhelmed.
The main work is preceded by the early work Prince Rostislav, a rarity that is interesting without being compelling.
I must praise also the Warner/EMI engineers who once again capture the sound with brilliance and transparency and none of the boxiness which can pervade Petrenko's recordings for Naxos.
There is no shortage of great recordings-the 3 aforementioned are all superb, and in stunning sound (you must make sure to get the re-mastered Maazel set if that is your choice).
The norm is for all 3 symphonies to be issued as a set in due course, and this applies to Ormandy, Ashkenazy and Maazel-though I would warn that the Ormandy includes the 1959 heavily cut recording of the Second in a poor mastering, but returns to form with a superb 3rd. The Pletnev set is in lush sound but in my view a touch prosaic, especially in the First Symphony. The complete Petrenko set will rival the best listed above.
Recordings to avoid are Jansons/St. Petersburg for its dry sound and its peculiar balancing, the dreadful Dutoit/Philadelphia on Decca (which has in any event sunk without trace-no world class playing on THAT recording)-and the Svetlanov unless you are a glutton for the punishing sound of off pitch strangulated brass from the bad old days!
No performance of the First, no matter how well played and recorded matches this one as an interpretation though-in this performance one can agree with Robert Simpson that this is THE great post Tchaikovsky Russian symphony-well, for about 50 minutes anyway! This is my favourite of the Rachmaninov Symphonies, just pipping the Third-I am less fond of the Second which I know bucks the trend-and it is to this performance that I shall return for the share brilliance of its interpretation. Unreservedly recommended. Stewart Crowe.
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