Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 2 (Live)

Chronique

Sergei Rachmaninov's Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27, premiered in 1908, is overflowing with melody and motivic ideas. The work has sometimes been criticized for piling those ideas up instead of developing them, but it has only grown more popular over the last few decades, and all this means is that it needs a conductor to keep it moving. There are by now a number of good versions on the market; its 1970s champion, André Previn, has a fetching way with the tunes. But for galloping forward motion, it's hard to beat the Russian lion Vladimir Ashkenazy. He has recorded the work several times. The advantage of this version, recorded in 2015 with the Philharmonia Orchestra at London's Southbank Centre, is that it's heard live; there's an energy that's hard to duplicate in the studio, and that is reflected in the roaring (by British standards) applause that is retained in full at the end. Sample the finale and note how Ashkenazy gets the crowd to that point; without losing any detail, he simply plows through the melodic richness. Signum's engineers help out with unusually clear recorded sound (and the crowd with nearly complete silence until the end), and the end result is a Rachmaninov 2 that's worth your strong consideration.
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