Like bookends this
disc features both Rachmaninov’s very
first attempt at a symphony as well
as his last, spanning the years 1891
to 1935/36. His second symphony (1906/07)
is undisputedly the best of his output,
although the Symphonic Dances (chronologically
even later than the third symphony)
are not to be lightly dismissed. Rachmaninov
was eighteen when he penned the test
piece set him by his teacher Anton Arensky
in 1891, and this so-called Youth
Symphony, despite its overtly Tchaikovskian
tunes, scoring and rhythms, is clearly
the work of a young man who was gifted
with a melodic sense and natural feel
for structure. Four years later he completed
his First Symphony Op.13, and, with
more than a coincidence, it shares the
same D minor key as its putative prototype.
In 1912 he published fourteen songs
with piano accompaniment, the last of
which was a wordless vocal melody presenting
the voice as a pure instrument, a melisma
unfettered by text (eight years earlier
his one-act opera Francesca da Rimini
had also featured a wordless chorus
from the souls in Purgatory, while his
later compatriot Reinhold Glière
produced a concerto for coloratura soprano
in 1943). But the most substantial work
on the disc is the Third Symphony, first
performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra
under Stokowski on 6 November 1936.
It was not well received by public or
critics alike, despite the ‘exemplary’
performance heard by the composer. Somehow
it did not communicate and, to the public’s
ears, lacked both the extravagant Romantic
melodies in the works for piano and
orchestra, and the elegant balance of
instrumentation which typified his music.
Owain Arwel Hughes
clearly loves the music of Rachmaninov.
While emphasising the rugged quality
of the angular melodic material of the
Youth Symphony he contrasts it
with a tender performance of the Vocalise.
The opening of the symphony, so reminiscent
of its immediate (and better) predecessor,
is hauntingly played by the clarinet,
as are the solos taken by horn and leader
at the start of the second movement
Adagio. The finale is brisk,
its thematic material not quite up to
Rachmaninov’s inspired best until the
second subject a couple of minutes in,
where the playing is stylish if over-indulgently
so. The RSNO is a fine orchestra, the
acoustics of the Henry Wood Hall in
Glasgow not quite doing them full justice
in places, but the strings circumnavigate
the tricky fugue despite this slight
dryness. Three lesser known but nevertheless
enjoyable works from this tunesmith.
Christopher Fifield
Royal
Scottish National Orchestra/Owain Arwel Hughes