Rachmaninoff: The Isle of the Dead / Symphony No. 1
$32.00
Out of Stock6+ weeks add to cart
SERGEI RACHMANINOV
Rachmaninoff: The Isle of the Dead / Symphony No. 1
London Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Vladimir Jurowski
[ LPO Live / CD ]
Release Date: Friday 15 March 2019
This item is currently out of stock. It may take 6 or more weeks to obtain from when you place your order as this is a specialist product.
The works on this disc were recorded live in concert with the London Philharmonic Orchestra's Principal Conductor, Vladimir Jurowski. The Isle of the Dead,Rachmaninoff's dramatic tone poem inspired by a black and white reproduction of Austrian painter Arnold Böcklin's work of the same name, darkly charts a soul's journey to its final rest, drawing on plainchant melodies connected with the Latin Requiem mass. In contrast, much of the drama of the First Symphony happened off the page; its disastrous premiere left the young Rachmaninoff with crippling self doubt, and writer's block. Removed from its fortunate history, the youthful First Symphony shines; its exhilarating themes hinting at Rachmaninoff's mature work yet to come.
" [The Isle of the Dead] has long been a Jurowski speciality and, unless you insist on the sensationally doom-laden, heavyfooted approach of late-career Evgeny Svetlanov (BBC, 1/08 et al), there should be plenty to enjoy. The surprising iridescence of Rachmaninov's sonic palette is brilliantly conveyed… you may find the symphony's sonic oddities less distracting than I did." Gramophone
"It's a soaring, big-boned work, overflowing with melody and characteristic Rachmaninov melancholy. If only the composer had lived to see how a partnership like Jurowski and the LPO, superbly prepared, can make this work blaze and sing." Observer
