- Release Info -------------------------------------------------------------- -
Artist: Paavo Jarvi
Album: Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2; Scherzo; Dances From Aleko
Label: Telarc
Playtime: 69:59 min
Genre: Classical
URL: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=43:148397
Rip date: 2008-05-28
Street date: 2007-00-00
Size: 96.55 MB
Type: Normal
Quality: 182 kbps / 4410kHz / Joint Stereo
- Release Notes ------------------------------------------------------------- -
Sleek, solid, and professional, Paavo JΣrvi and the Cincinnati Symphony's
2007 recording of Rachmaninov's Second Symphony is a superbly executed
mistake. In the past, JΣrvi and the Cincinnati had turned in some brilliant
performances -- one remembers fondly their edgy but lyrical recording of the
suites from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet -- and some eccentric performances
-- one recalls with a shudder their strangely distorted Dvorßk's "From the
New World" Symphony. But despite the superlative ensemble playing of the
Cincinnati and the complete conductorial control of JΣrvi, their
interpretation of Rachmaninov's Second is simply wrong-headed. The lushest,
sweetest, sexiest, and darkest of the late Russian Romantic symphonies
composed after Tchaikovsky's Sixth, Rachmaninov's Second can in the right
performance be terrifically thrilling, tremendously exciting, and undeniably
satisfying. But JΣrvi and the Cincinnati trim the lushness, cut the
sweetness, mute the sexiness, and so thoroughly clarify and brighten the
darkly radiant colors that the work sounds less like Rachmaninov and more
like one of the lesser French late Romantic symphonists: Dukas, say, or
d'Indy. For a great Rachmaninov Second, try the juicy Evgeny
Svetlanov/Bolshoi Theater recording or either of the AndrΘ Previn/LSO
recordings, the urgent RCA or the ardent EMI. JΣrvi and the Cincinnati's
inclusion of brisk but impersonal readings of Rachmaninov's uncharacteristic
Scherzo plus the "Woman's Dance" and "Men's Dance" from Rachmaninov's fiery
opera Aleko adds nothing but more time to the disc. Telarc's digital sound is
clean and direct, but not especially present.
- Track List ---------------------------------------------------------------- -
01. Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op.27: I. Largo - Allegro Moderato (18:07)
02. Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op.27: II. Allegro Molto ( 9:55)
03. Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op.27: III. Adagio (14:44)
04. Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op.27: IV. Allegro Vivace (13:04)
05. Scherzo ( 5:00)
06. Dances from Aleko: Women's Dance ( 4:14)
07. Dances from Aleko: Men's Dance ( 4:55)
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -