MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


alternatively Crotchet   AmazonUK   AmazonUS

Sergei RACHMANINOV (1873 -1943)
Complete Symphonies and Other Works

CD 1 [69:14]
Caprice Bohémien, op.12 (1892/1894) [19:31]
Symphony No.1 in D minor, op.13 (1895) [49:34]
CD 2 [58:06]
Symphony No.2 in E minor, op.27 (1906/1907) [58:06]
CD 3 [51:38]
Symphony No.3 in A minor, op.44 (1935/1936) [41:32]
Mélodie in E, op.3/3 (1892) [5:32]
Polichinelle, op.3/4 (1892) [4:31]
National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland/Alexander Anissimov
rec. 6-7 May 1996 (opp.12, 13); 24-25 March 1997 (op.27); 22-23 April 1996 (opp. 3, 44); National Concert Hall, Dublin. DDD
re-packaging of Naxos 8.550806, 8.554230, 8.550808
NAXOS 8.503191 [3 CDs: 69:14 + 58:06 + 51:38]




Only a few weeks ago I had the great pleasure of welcoming the re-issue of Mariss Jansons and the St Petersburg Philharmonic’s recordings of the Rachmaninov Symphonies [EMI 5 00885 review]. Now, Naxos re-packages its three separate disks of the works in a box.

In some respects, musically, there is little to choose between the Jansons and Anissimov sets. Each is played superbly, and the interpretations are without fuss or embellishment. Anissimov chooses, what we might call, more traditional tempi than Jansons – certainly his are the ones we are used to hearing. His use of rubato is more tempered, and, in general, he is slightly slower, but this never impairs the flow of the music and the unfolding of the musical argument.

Caprice Bohémien starts the first disk. It’s a harmless work, and that’s about all one can say about it. The opening section is fun but the composer gets bogged down with his material in the ensuing slow section and the work never really comes alive after that.

The 1st Symphony is a different matter. Here, although Anissimov shows some slight restraint, he is always alive to the light and shade in the work – something not normally shown in this youthful "indiscretion", as some would have it. The scherzo sounds like ballet music here, I’d never thought of that before when listening to this movement, and it works! The difficult finale is never allowed to get out of hand, and especially pleasing is his handling of the slow, tragic, coda. After a fine gong crash, Anissimov slackens the tension then builds up the pressure as the music grows louder and more desperate – an element I am beginning to feel more and more in these works.

I chronicled the history of Rachmaninov’s symphonic works in my earlier review so I will not repeat myself here, except to mention that the 2nd Symphony was always performed in a heftily cut version until André Previn and the LSO recorded the complete work in 1973 (EMI CLASSICS 0077776453026 review). Anissimov’s performance of the first three movements of the 2nd Symphony is wholly satisfying. Passion, fire, tension and release are there in abundance and what a performance it is. However, for no reason whatsoever, the finale has two cuts in it - one of approximately 30 seconds and a larger, more damaging one, of 90 seconds - which makes nonsense of the music. Why cut such perfectly proportioned music? It would be like cutting all the jokes out of the Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup, so perfectly proportioned is that film.

The 3rd Symphony also receives a magnificent performance, and, as in 1st Symphony, Anissimov has a firm hold on the ebb and flow of the music. The orchestra responds to his every demand. Unfortunately, it is followed by two trifles from Rachmaninov’s earliest compositional years in over-blown orchestrations. I repeat myself here, but I must say that even though these miniatures are "fillers", they have no place to follow such a work as the 3rd Symphony.

High praise must go to both conductor and orchestra for magnificent performances of the symphonies – special mention must be made of the brass section, which is unbridled in its enthusiasm! However the set cannot be recommended because of the butchering of the finale of the 2nd. However, by all means have the separate disks of the 1st (Naxos 8.550806) and 3rd Symphonies (Naxos 8.550808) in your collection. You will not be disappointed.

The sound is clear, crisp and bright in Naxos’s best manner.

Bob Briggs



 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.