BaL 25.06.22 - Rachmaninov: Symphony no 2

[Darloboy]

William Mival did this only a few years ago .

Yes, in February 2012. He chose Previn's EMI recording.

Other BaL choices include:

Geoffrey Norris (September 1980): LPO/Weller with Hallé/Loughran as runner-up
Stephen Johnson (September 1988): Concertgebouw/Ashkenazy

[RobP]

With regard to Rattle, his latest LSO Live version is the best. It has an old-world sense of largesse in terms of the phrasing and tempo variation and is available in DSD512 from NativeDSD.com, which is, despite the notorious Barbican acoustic, superb.

Previn is also available in various live versions including a fascinating one with the VPO, but more especially an LSO Salzburg performance from 1977, which if memory serves I copied from LSO Live Recordings, which has many fascinating LSO concert performances on YouTube.

As has been mentioned you can easily thin the list out by disposing of the ones with cuts.

[LHC]

I appear to have an odd mixture of recordings:

Previn, Jansons, Pletnev, Pappano, Gergiev (LSO), Rattle (LSO), Edward Downes on a BBCMM disc and most surprising of all, a recording with Sinfonia Varsivo conducted by the tenor, Jose Cura, which although not a front runner, is rather better than might be expected.

Previn is still my preferred recording from that lot.

[Pulcinella]

With regard to Rattle, his latest LSO Live version is the best. It has an old-world sense of largesse in terms of the phrasing and tempo variation and is available in DSD512 from NativeDSD.com, which is, despite the notorious Barbican acoustic, superb.

Previn is also available in various live versions including a fascinating one with the VPO, but more especially an LSO Salzburg performance from 1977, which if memory serves I copied from LSO Live Recordings, which has many fascinating LSO concert performances on YouTube.

As has been mentioned you can easily thin the list out by disposing of the ones with cuts.

In which case, according to Wiki, Previn's RCA recording would get the chop:

Because of its formidable length, Symphony No. 2 has been the subject of many revisions, particularly in the 1940s and 1950s, which reduced the piece from nearly an hour to as little as 35 minutes. Before 1970 the piece was usually performed in one of its revised, shorter, versions. Since then orchestras have used the complete version almost exclusively, although sometimes with the omission of a repeat of the exposition in the first movement. The 2016 Previn / LSO CD is one of the abridged versions still available (9026-60791-2).

[Pulcinella]

This also comes from the Wiki article:

Notable recordings include the following:

Nikolai Sokoloff conducting the Cleveland Orchestra, 1928, Brunswick/Cleveland Orchestra 75th Anniversary Edition, Cleveland Orchestra, (cut, mono) (the recording premiere)
Nikolai Golovanov conducting the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, 1945, Boheme/Melodiya (cut, mono)
Artur Rodziński conducting the New York Philharmonic, 1945, EMI (cut, mono)
Dimitri Mitropoulos conducting the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, 1947, RCA Victor/Lys (cut, mono)
William Steinberg conducting the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, 1953, EMI (cut, mono)
Kurt Sanderling conducting the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, 1956, Deutsche Grammophon (cut, mono)
Paul Paray conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, 1957, Mercury Records (cut)
Sir Adrian Boult conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra, 1957, RCA Victor Red Seal / Decca (cut, mono or stereo)
Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra, 1959, Sony (cut)
Alfred Wallenstein conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, 1960, Capitol Records (cut)
André Previn conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, c. 1967 RCA (cut)
Paul Kletzki conducting the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, 1968, Decca/London (first commercially recorded performance without cuts)
Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra, 1973, RCA (complete)
André Previn conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, 1973, EMI (complete)
Edo de Waart conducting the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, 1977, Decca (complete)
Yuri Temirkanov conducting the USSR State Symphony Orchestra, 1977
Ling Tung conducting the Grand Teton Music Festival, 1977 GTMF record GTMF 1977 "(complete)"
Yuri Temirkanov conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, 1978, EMI (complete)
Vladimir Ashkenazy conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra, 1982, Decca (complete)
Lorin Maazel conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker, 1983, Deutsche Grammophon (complete)
Simon Rattle conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, 1984, EMI (complete)
Dmitri Kitayenko conducting the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, 1985, Melodiya (complete)
André Previn conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, 1985, Telarc (complete)
Gennady Rozhdestvensky conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, 1988, IMP/MCA Classics (complete, with first movement repeat)
Andrew Litton conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, 1990, Virgin Classics (complete, with first movement repeat)
Yuri Temirkanov conducting the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, 1991, RCA (complete, with first movement repeat)
Mikhail Pletnev conducting the Russian National Orchestra, 1993, Deutsche Grammophon (complete)
Vernon Handley conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, 1994, RPO (complete, with first movement repeat)
Mariss Jansons conducting the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, 1994, EMI (complete)
Valery Polyansky conducting the Russian State Symphony Orchestra, 1997, Chandos Records (complete)
Iván Fischer conducting the Budapest Festival Orchestra, 2004, Channel Classics Records (complete)
Valery Gergiev conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, 2010, London Symphony Orchestra Ltd (complete)
Antonio Pappano plays and explains Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2 with Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, 2018, EuroArts (complete)

[CallMePaul]

William Mival did this only a few years ago .

Apity that the first symphony was not chosen. Not only do I find it a more interesting piece, but it has to my knowledge never been covered in BAL before, unlike nos 2 and 3, both done fairly recently.

[Keraulophone]

Geoffrey Norris (September 1980): LPO/Weller with Hallé/Loughran as runner-up

The Hallé/Loughran, originally released in 1974 on 99p Classics for Pleasure (EMI), satisfied the impecunious student before he could afford LSO/Previn, Philadelphia/Ormandy and Concertgebouw/Ashkenazy. The Hallé clarinetist may have been Keith Puddy, who was just about the equal of Jack Brymer. Pappano’s live recording offers an interesting con amore Italian version shaded with Wagner.

David Gutman’s survey for Gramophone:

https://www.gramophone.co.uk/features/article/rachmaninov-s-symphony-no-2-which-recording-is-best

.

[Petrushka]

The Hallé/Loughran, originally released in 1974 on 99p Classics for Pleasure (EMI)...The Hallé clarinetist may have been Keith Puddy, who was just about the equal of Jack Brymer.

That was my first Rachmaninov 2 as well. I have a Halle concert programme to hand from 1978 (not the Rach 2) where the principal clarinet is listed as James Gregson.

[BBMmk2]

As like with the 4 Sea Interludes, I prefer Previn, but I’d like to add Tirmakanov, and the RPO, as well. C/w Previn’s Tchaikovsky Manfred, etc. Also I like Mariss Jansons’s too.

[cloughie]

The Hallé/Loughran, originally released in 1974 on 99p Classics for Pleasure (EMI), satisfied the impecunious student before he could afford LSO/Previn, Philadelphia/Ormandy and Concertgebouw/Ashkenazy. The Hallé clarinetist may have been Keith Puddy, who was just about the equal of Jack Brymer. Pappano’s live recording offers an interesting con amore Italian version shaded with Wagner.

David Gutman’s survey for Gramophone:

https://www.gramophone.co.uk/features/article/rachmaninov-s-symphony-no-2-which-recording-is-best

.

Thanks for the reminder - I’d forgotten what a lovely performance the Loughran is - cue for a listen dreckly!

[Pulcinella]

Thanks for the reminder - I’d forgotten what a lovely performance the Loughran is - cue for a listen dreckly!

Loughran gets quite a few honourable mentions (Brahms symphonies, I recall): time for Warner to reissue some of that CfP stuff? I think the only CD I have with him in charge is a (not top rank) Belshazzar's Feast.

[Darloboy]

Apity that the first symphony was not chosen. Not only do I find it a more interesting piece, but it has to my knowledge never been covered in BAL before, unlike nos 2 and 3, both done fairly recently.

The first has been covered twice before: first by Edward Seckerson in May 93 (Philadelphia/Ormandy was 1st choice, with RPO/Litton as the single CD/modern sound choice); and then by David Fanning in December 08 - he went with the Concertgebouw/Ashkenazy recording.

Incidentally, everything on the Concertgebouw/Ashkenazy 3CD box (all 3 symphonies; the Symphonic Dances; The Isle of the Dead; and The Bells) has been a BaL First Choice at some point in time.

[cloughie]

Loughran gets quite a few honourable mentions (Brahms symphonies, I recall): time for Warner to reissue some of that CfP stuff? I think the only CD I have with him in charge is a (not top rank) Belshazzar's Feast.

…and his Beethoven Symphonies and Schubert 9 which were LPs on the Enigma Label (ASV?) never to get to CD !

[CallMePaul]

Incidentally, everything on the Concertgebouw/Ashkenazy 3CD box (all 3 symphonies; the Symphonic Dances; The Isle of the Dead; and The Bells) has been a BaL First Choice at some point in time.

Sadly the 2CD reissue of the symphonies (only) splits No2 across the two discs, presumably to make them available cheaply.

[Barbirollians]

Loughran gets quite a few honourable mentions (Brahms symphonies, I recall): time for Warner to reissue some of that CfP stuff? I think the only CD I have with him in charge is a (not top rank) Belshazzar's Feast.

The Loughran did reappear on CFP on CD briefly- I got a copy secondhand not long ago and jolly good it is too. Still not heard anything to top Previn in uncut versions - there are some splendid and exciting cut versions like Sanderling and Ormandy but they are cut and that rules them out surely as library versions - and in fact I still prefer Previn to them.