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Rachmaninov - Symphonies 2 & 3, Isle of the Dead

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Label: Deutsche Grammophon

Cat No: 4864775

Barcode: 0028948647750

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 2

Genre: Orchestral

Release Date: 30th June 2023

Works

Rachmaninov, Sergei

Symphony no.2 in E minor, op.27
Symphony no.3 in A minor, op.44
The Isle of the Dead, op.29

Artists

The Philadelphia Orchestra

Conductor

Yannick Nezet-Seguin

Works

Rachmaninov, Sergei

Symphony no.2 in E minor, op.27
Symphony no.3 in A minor, op.44
The Isle of the Dead, op.29

Artists

The Philadelphia Orchestra

Conductor

Yannick Nezet-Seguin

About

DG’s third Rachmaninov 150 album sees The Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin present Symphonies nos. 2 & 3 and The Isle of the Dead. The 2‑CD release completes their two-part survey of the three symphonies and other major orchestral works and, like the first instalment of 2021 – an acclaimed recording of Symphony no.1 and the Symphonic Dances – and their work with Daniil Trifonov, continues to build on the orchestra’s incomparable Rachmaninov legacy. The Russian pianist-composer made his first appearance as soloist with the Fabulous Philadelphians in 1909; played with and conducted the orchestra many times over the next 34 years; recorded his works for piano and orchestra with it; and wrote his Paganini Rhapsody, Third Symphony and Symphonic Dances with its famously rich sound in mind.

Born on 1 April 1873 in the Novgorod region of western Russia, Rachmaninov moved as a child to St Petersburg, where he enrolled at the city’s conservatoire. He subsequently flourished as a student at the Moscow Conservatory, graduated with its prestigious Great Gold Medal and, in 1893, saw his opera Aleko achieve great success. Plunged into depression four years later by the disastrous premiere of his First Symphony, he rebuilt his confidence with the help of Dr Nikolay Dahl and went on to produce such major works as the Second and Third Piano Concertos, Second Symphony, The Bells and two more operas, Francesca da Rimini and The Miserly Knight, over the next 20 years. He emigrated after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, ultimately settling in the US, where he focused primarily on his career as a soloist. He continued to compose, however, and the rich melodic invention of such late masterworks as the Variations on a Theme of Corelli (his last work for solo piano), the Paganini Rhapsody, Third Symphony and Symphonic Dances delighted audiences worldwide. Rachmaninov died in Beverly Hills on 28 March 1943.

Sound/Video

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Symphony No.2 in E minor, op.27: 1a. Largo –
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Symphony No.2 in E minor, op.27: 1b. Allegro moderato –
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Symphony No.2 in E minor, op.27: 1c. Moderato
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Symphony No.2 in E minor, op.27: 2. Allegro molto
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Symphony No.2 in E minor, op.27: 3. Adagio
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Symphony No.2 in E minor, op.27: 4. Allegro vivace
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Symphony No.3 in A minor, op.44: 1. Lento – Allegro moderato – Più vivo (Allegro) – Allegro molto – Tempo I – Allegro
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Symphony No.3 in A minor, op.44: 2. Adagio ma non troppo – Allegro vivace – Alla breve. L’istesso tempo – Adagio
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Symphony No.3 in A minor, op.44: Allegro â€“ Meno mosso â€“ Allegro vivace â€“ Moderato â€“ Tempo I â€“ Andante con moto â€“ Allegretto â€“ Allegro vivace
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Isle of the Dead, op.29: Lento – Tranquillo – Largo – Allegro molto – Largo – Tempo I

Europadisc Review

Two years after their acclaimed accounts of Rachmaninov’s First Symphony and Symphonic Dances, the Philadelphia Orchestra under their music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin on Deutsche Grammophon return to complete the symphony cycle with a release coupling the Second and Third Symphonies with the symphonic poem Isle of the Dead. Of their earlier release, we wrote here that, ‘[u]nder Nézet-Séguin, the orchestra has unquestionably rediscovered its Rachmaninov roots’, hailing the launch of ‘a cycle that, if it lives up to these standards, should prove a new benchmark.’ And happily our hopes have been fulfilled.

The Philadelphia Orchestra’s links with Rachmaninov go back a long way: they gave the premieres of the Third Symphony and Fourth Piano Concerto (with the composer himself as soloist), and even before then his music was consistently championed by their chief conductor, Leopold Stokowski. The ‘Rachmaninov sound’ is inextricably linked with the ‘Philadelphia sound’, particularly its lush strings, and the composer himself conducted the first recording of Isle of the Dead with them in 1929, and ten years later the Third Symphony (just three years after its premiere under Stokowski).

Nézet-Séguin has clearly steeped himself in this tradition, with a keen ear for overall sonority as well as for telling detail, for idiomatic rubato as well as a phenomenal grip on tempi and transitions. From the very outset of the Second Symphony, the listener gets a good indication of some of the many strengths of this account: the depth and weight of the cellos and basses, the plangency and superb voicing of the woodwind, with just the right degree of attack to their initial mezzo forte. This is an expansive slow introduction that in this performance builds both passionately and organically, not afraid to wear its heart on its sleeve, but never tipping over into schmaltz. There’s a hint of indulgence in the violin’s melody at the outset of the Allegro moderato (tracked separately), and plenty of space (acoustically and in terms of pacing) for the music to breathe. Like many other conductors, Nézet-Séguin eschews the exposition repeat (regarded by many commentators as redundant), yet such is his command of forward trajectory that this omission hardly registers.

The Allegro molto scherzo movement has incisiveness without feeling pushed, combining bite and bloom in the Verizon Hall of Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center. That bloom finds its most fervent expression in a radiant account of the great Adagio, the (unidentified) first clarinet leading a field of outstanding woodwind soloists. There’s never a moment’s doubt that Nézet-Séguin and his players love this music, caressing the phrases as sequence piles on sequence. But the crown of the performance is the way that the natural ebullience of the concluding Allegro vivace is kept on a tight rein while revealing astonishing command of textural and motivic detail. The performance as a whole is a perfect lesson in how to combine intensity of expression with formal cogency.

The more elusive delights of the tightly organised Third Symphony, with its close motivic workings, emerge here just as tellingly. In particular, Nézet-Séguin and his players have a loving way with the first movement’s ripe, long-breathed second subject. Once again, there’s no stinting on rubato, yet this is offset by the seamlessness of the transitions, and the rhythmic alertness of the development section. The second of the work’s three movements combines the function of slow movement and scherzo, and conductor and musicians move deftly from the one to the other, while the Russian element of the finale is vibrantly in evidence, as well as the undercurrent of anxiety that is such a trademark of the composer.

Alongside these stunning accounts of the symphonies comes a performance of Isle of the Dead that is unusually commanding, the suggestion of waves lapping against the prow of the boat charting an inexorable progress. The visceral depths of the lower strings are particularly compelling, nowhere more so than in the lowering crescendo just before figure 6 in the full score. The build-up to the first big climax just after figure 11 feels just as fatefully inescapable. The ominous brass chorale at the Largo after figure 14 dissolves into crystalline airiness as the soul reflects on its life, becoming increasingly impassioned as it pleads for a reprieve. The triple forte at figure 22 is overwhelming but also tightly controlled, so that the subsequent emergence of the Dies irae theme feels both thrilling and inevitable. Further sombre brass chorales are intoned before the return of the opening lapping motif, as the boatman – minus his one-way passenger – makes his way back, the Dies irae finally echoing from the bass clarinet, bassoon and cellos. This is an exceptionally gripping account of Rachmaninov’s tribute to the artistic genius of Arnold Böcklin in a competitive field, and it caps a cycle of particular authority, one of the finest recordings this team has yet given us. Recommended without reservation!

Reviews

As with the first instalment of Nézet-Séguin’s symphonic Rachmaninov (the First Symphony and the Symphonic Dances – 2/21), there’s a very real sense here of this music coming home, of a sound, a style, an ethos, in playing it that somehow – subliminally – gets passed down through the generations. ... it almost goes without saying that the final segment of this impressive release – the Arnold Böcklin inspired, Dies irae-saturated The Isle of the Dead – delivers in spades the requisite inexorability and inevitability. If ever there was an authentic Rachmaninov sound, this is it. Nézet-Séguin recognises it and harnesses it. Edward Seckerson

Gramophone August 2023