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             


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

REVIEW


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

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS
Chandos downloads may be obtained from the ClassicalShop 

Serge RACHMANINOFF (1873-1943)
Caprice bohémien, Op. 12 (1892-94) [17:55]
Prince Rostislav (1891) [14:41]
Symphony No 3 in A minor, Op. 44 (1935-36) [40:50]
BBC Philharmonic/Gianandrea Noseda
rec. 1, 3 November 2010, Studio 7, New Broadcasting House, Manchester. DDD
CHANDOS CHAN 10677 [73:49]

Experience Classicsonline


 

 
Chandos has developed an extremely fruitful relationship with the BBC Philharmonic over a good many years. That partnership has continued very successfully during the time that Gianandrea Noseda has been the orchestra’s Chief Conductor. He stepped down from that role in summer 2011 but some recordings were still ‘in the can’ at that time and this Rachmaninoff disc contains some of them – in addition I believe that some of the music by that composer in which Noseda led the orchestra at this year’s Promenade Concerts was subsequently recorded.
 
So there are more Rachmaninoff recordings to come from this team but this release completes their survey of the symphonies. They’ve already given us versions of the First Symphony (CHAN 10475) and of the magnificent Second (review). I’ve not heard those recordings but if they’re of comparable quality to this latest release then that’s an omission that I must hasten to put right – and I hope Noseda and the BBC Phil may yet give us of a recording of the Symphonic Dances.
 
The Third Symphony is the main offering here. It’s a work that is somewhat perplexing to me because I find its structure rather difficult to follow. By the time he wrote it Rachmaninoff’s style had become, by comparison with his earlier works, if not terse then certainly more concise. You won’t find here the expansive writing that is such a feature of the Second and Third Piano Concertos or the Second Symphony, though lyricism is far from banished. In the Third Symphony the themes tend to be shorter in span and I don’t always follow the inter-relation between episodes – I hasten to say that I’m sure the fault is mine and not the composer’s. However, the music can seem episodic: in the booklet no fewer than ten separate tempo markings are listed for the first movement, while there are seven different tempi in the second movement and no less than fourteen in the finale. It’s one of the successful features of this present performance that Gianandrea Noseda leads the listener on and one never feels that one is listening to a series of episodes that have been loosely drawn together.
 
If Rachmaninoff’s style had become more concise by the mid-1930s when he wrote this symphony, his style had also matured in another way: his orchestration had become much more sophisticated and resourceful. The scoring of this symphony is vivid and imaginative. This is apparent from the very start when the opening quiet, chant-like theme is scored for the unusual combination of clarinets, two muted horns and a single cello, also muted. What an original sonority! Thereafter the orchestration is often more vibrant and colourful but these first few bars alone tell us that an expert and imaginative orchestrator is at work.
 
In this performance the scoring is rendered all the more effective thanks to the skill of Noseda and his players and that of the Chandos engineers. The recording is typical of Chandos in its immediacy, clarity and full richness. And what playing the engineers report! The BBC Philharmonic, always a vital and responsive body of musicians, is on top of its collective game here. Skilfully guided by their conductor, they respond to all the subtleties and passion of Rachmaninoff’s writing.
 
Noseda is an ardent advocate for the symphony. He knits the first movement together most convincingly. Then he brings out all the wistful melancholy in the slow movement – aided by some tremendously sensitive playing by the orchestra. The scherzo episode within this movement is animated and one can only admire the vitality with which the rhythms are invested in this section. David Nice points out in his very good note that the composition of the finale was undertaken nine months after Rachmaninoff had completed the first two movements. In this finale there appears to be, on the surface, a mood change, enhanced by the use of a major key. But is everything as it seems? There is a good deal of surface brilliance – and Noseda dispatches these passages with great panache – but there’s also a good deal of the wistful lyricism that’s so typical of this composer; it’s as if he can’t bring himself to be cheerful for long – sooner or later the mask slips. Noseda is equally convincing in such stretches of music So while there’s abundant drive and energy, not least in the fugato episode, passages such as the sweeping lyrical section that begins at 8:06 are given their full due.
 
I’m still not sure I understand this symphony as completely as I grasp its predecessor but I found myself swept along by this splendid reading, which is one of the best accounts of the Third that I can recall hearing.
 
Noseda completes his programme with two much earlier works. Prince Rostislav is a tone poem inspired by the tale of a young Prince of Kiev who drowns in the River Dniepr. Rachmaninoff seems to have regarded the piece as a ‘prentice work and it was never performed in his lifetime – the première took place in 1945. To be sure it betrays the influence of others. The colourful instrumentation is reminiscent of Rimsky-Korsakov and the music itself shows quite a debt to Tchaikovsky. However, anyone hearing this passionate and atmospheric reading by Gianandrea Noseda may feel, as I do, that the composer was too self-critical in withholding the piece from the public. An opus number was assigned to Caprice bohémien, however. This is another piece that has its weaknesses, perhaps, but which comes across very well when it receives a committed and skilful performance, which is what happens here. The title is, arguably, a bit misleading in suggesting, as it does, a composition that is essentially light hearted for there are parts of this work that have a darker hue than one might expect.. Noseda is a fine advocate for the piece and the performance is full of intensity and vitality.
 
This is a splendid disc, which I’ve enjoyed very much. The official partnership between the BBC Philharmonic and Gianandrea Noseda may have ended but I hope we haven’t seen and heard the last of them in the recording studio.
 
John Quinn



 

 

 



 


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






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.