Sergei RACHMANINOV (1873-1943)
Symphonies and Orchestral Music
Singapore Symphony Orchestra/Lan Shui
rec. 2008-2015, Esplanade Concert Hall, Singapore
Reviewed as downloaded in 24/96 sound with pdf booklet from
eclassical.com
BIS BIS-2512 SACD
[4 discs: 296:11]
This collection of Rachmaninov’s orchestral works began in 2008 with a
superb recording of the Second Symphony. After a three-year gap,
sessions took place each year, establishing a consistently high bar of
interpretative quality through to 2015. It remains an impressive wake-up
call from a Far-Eastern conductor and orchestra demonstrating a trenchant
rapport with the composer, supported by spectacular sound engineering
recorded at the Esplanade Concert Hall, the orchestra’s home in Singapore.
The reissue doesn’t include the highly recommendable Piano Concerto No
1 and Paganini Rhapsody with Yevgeny
Sudbin that were originally coupled with Symphony No 1 and No 3 respectively. BIS moved elsewhere to set down the other
concertos with Sudbin - the BBC SO/Oramo (Nos 2 & 3) and North
Carolina SO/Llewellyn (No 4 & Medtner Concerto No 2).
Hopefully these excellent performances will also be gathered together as a
separate package.
The main menu of symphonic fare features a red meat performance of the First Symphony that consistently takes the music to the edge with
no escape from an overwhelming ‘V for Vengeance’ finale. The Second Symphony offers the palliative obverse side of the coin.
Shui gauges structure, pacing and emotional intensity with focus and
flexibility throughout. The orchestra glows from within, bringing rich,
pungent textures and expressive subtlety, with the great soaring melodies
breathing deep, vocal oxygen into the interplay between darkness and light.
Some listeners may find the third movement clarinet solo lingers a touch
too lovingly, but its tenderness soon gathers momentum towards the
composer’s headier regions of rapture. The celebratory finale is
irresistibly propelled towards an exultant coda.
Shui is always alert to the Tchaikovskyan bedrock of the first two
symphonies, especially the characteristic use of the slowly descending
scale in bass lines together with references to the Fate/Dies Irae
axis of thematic material shared by both composers.
Composed nearly three decades after No 2, the Third Symphony and Symphonic Dances represent a
transformative stylistic leap into a changed world. More concise and direct
in utterance, but still filtered through an essentially late-Romantic
temperament, Shui’s performances of both works deliver bite and precision.
Initially, the tempo for the symphony’s first movement may seem very slow
for an Allegro moderato, but it cannily
buttresses an underlying sense of personal sadness, displacement and loss
that tugs at the heartstrings of music trying to be quite the opposite.
This sharp contrast is made overt in the second movement, where a central
scherzo of almost manic energy is bookended by a yearning lament for lost
times that ultimately collapses in heartbreak and disillusion. The
Singapore players produce the most lambent variety of tone for the yearning
framework, but then turn on quicksilver for the virtuoso deftness of the
scherzo section.
This is all swept away by another of Rachmaninov’s festive finales, but one
that flirts dangerously with the Dies Irae, only for the old chant
to be consumed by one of the composer’s most exhilarating final flourishes.
Shui comprehensively reveals the Janus-face of the symphony with stark
contrast and ambivalence that pose more questions than answers.
Shui perhaps allows the Symphonic Dances to give up their secrets
too readily. Despite needle-sharp playing in the fast music, the lyrical
episodes of each dance find the performance bucking the satisfying trend of
the symphonies. The First Dance is compromised by an oddly prosaic central
saxophone-led section. Even when picked up by the strings, the melody
remains curiously inhibited, reluctant to soar to the heights that it’s
clearly striving to attain. Similarly, the transition leading to the
recapitulation of the opening section is rushed and awkwardly out of gear
with its point of arrival. The Second Dance sounds loth to fully engage
with the sinister qualities of the waltz, but then suddenly catches fire in
the whirlwind coda. The unpredictable compound rhythms of the Third Dance
register with accuracy but little cumulative adrenalin, and once again the
central section turns soupy to the point of indulgence. The final pages
deliver energy and impact aplenty, with tam-tam enthusiasts getting max
hit. But taken as a whole, each dance hatches its own curate’s egg, oddly
out of sympathy with the composer’s fully developed later idiom as well as
the sustained high level of inspiration achieved elsewhere in the set.
Cue the shorter works and the performances take wing again, especially The Isle of the Dead. The approach to the island is a long,
imposing crescendo that grips with an ever-increasing sense of foreboding
before the intensity of the last reminiscence of life and visionary
deliverance of the soul. Shui scrupulously avoids any suggestion of
morbidity. Sadness and loneliness are reserved for Charon’s return journey,
but with no preponderance of gloom, just the gradual extinction of light.
The Rock
is also tellingly paced with fleet woodwind playing and evocative muted
horn calls readily conjuring Lermontov’s poetic symbols of “the little
golden cloud” and “the crag” inspired by Chekhov’s story of a young girl
and older man, whose fated chance meeting is the stimulus for the musical
picture. The overt thematic references to the “Pathétique” Symphony in this
early work show Tchaikovsky’s influence still writ large. Sympathetically
performed as here, however, the work blooms with an endearing charm
presaging greater things to come.
Shui presents the other shorter earlier works in the best possible light,
much aided by the consistently rich and beautifully balanced sound quality.
In sum, a stand-out and compelling set well worthy of investigation. Let’s
hope there may still be an opportunity for these performers to set down The Bells, the composer’s own favourite amongst his works,
together with the Three Russian Folksongs and Respighi’s
orchestrations of 5 Etudes-Tableaux. They would be very welcome.
Ian Julier
Previous review:
Marc Rochester
Contents:
Symphony No 1 in D minor, Op 13 (1895)
[45:32]
Symphonic Movement in D minor (1891)
[14:16]
Prince Rostislav (1891)
[14:30]
Symphony No 2 in E minor, Op 27 (1906-07)
[61:23]
Vocalise, Op 34, No 14 (1912, orch. composer)
[5:53]
Symphony No 3 in A minor, Op 44 (1935-36)
[44:36]
Symphonic Dances, Op 45 (1940)
[36:45]
The Rock, Op 7 (1893)
[14:21]
Four excerpts from the opera ‘Aleko’ (1893)
[14:42]
Capriccio bohémien, Op 12 (1894)
[18:27]
Scherzo in D minor (1887)
[4:43]
Prelude to the opera ‘The Miserly Knight’, Op 24 (1904)
[6:28]
The Isle of the Dead, Op 29 (1908)
[20:02]
