Search - Sergey Rachmaninov, Vladimir Jurowski, London Philharmonic Orchestra :: Rachmaninov: The Isle of the Dead; Symphonic Dances [Hybrid SACD]

Cough cough?

Nancy G. Johnson | Dayton, Ohio | 12/25/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"No one warned me about the guy coughing in every inconvenient spot possible. Other than that, this recording is absolutely fabulous. Probably the best rendition I've heard of Symphonic Dances. Also as a note to the general public, if you have a cough, please stay home from the London Philharmonic."

Rachmaninoff Works as They Were Meant to be Played

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 11/11/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Vladimir Jurowski is a 33-year-old conductor whose star has risen quickly over the past two or three years. He has been named music director of the Glyndebourne Festival and is Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic whom he leads here. I have not heard any of his CDs but I was blown away by his conducting on a couple of opera DVDs, most notably Rachmininoff's 'The Miserly Knight,' which I've reviewed here. His debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra earlier this year was applauded here in the U.S. The son of a prominent conductor, Mikhail Jurowski (who was also his principal teacher), he is from the third generation of a musical Russian family; his grandfather, also Vladimir, was a composer.



The two works on this CD are apparently right down Jurowski's alley. He gives us a soulful reading -- with fabulous playing by the LPO -- of Rachmaninoff's tone poem 'The Isle of the Dead' based on Arnold Böcklin's paintings of that name. Like other pieces that limn movement (Elgar's 'The Wagon Passes' from the 'Nursery Suite,' and Mussorgsky's 'Bydlo' from 'Pictures at an Exhibitiion,' to name a couple) this 22-minute-long piece describes in tones the slow coming and going of a primitive vehicle, in this case the progress of a little boat rowed by the boatman toward 'the isle of the dead' and carrying a mysterious shrouded figure (presumably a corpse) and then beginning the voyage back from the island. The dipping of the boat in the gentle waves is depicted by a steady 5/8 rhythm that dominates the work. Like so many others of Rachmaninoff's works, 'Toteninsel'(its German name) quotes, appropriately, the 'Dies irae', here in etiolated form. The form of the work is a slowly building crescendo leading to a climax when the boat reaches the island, and then a slow descrescendo (with an interspersed second climax) as the boat begins its return trip. The strings of the LPO are simply magnificent in this performance, and they are matched by the solo winds and block harmonies of the brass in the climaxes. There is a new recording of 'The Isle of the Dead' by Mariss Jansons leading the St. Petersburg Philharmonic that has received some mostly positive reviews but I haven't heard it. Frankly, with the present recording I feel no pressing need to go investigate it.



The second work presented here is the orchestral version of the 'Symphonic Dances,' Op. 45. I'm more familiar with the two-piano version of this work but do recall a wonderful recording by Ormandy and the Philadelphia. Ormandy was the work's dedicatee. Jurowski and the LPO play the three movements with palpable depth of tone, resounding timps and bass drum (so important in this work) and rich strings and brass. Both the Symphonic Dances and The Isle of the Dead were recorded in concert (with little or no editing that I can detect) and the orchestra must have been in superb form: I hear nothing but inspired playing here. Jurowski has the skill to ask for and get some rather startling (but effective) rubati into the mix and the LPO follow him as if it were the most natural thing in the world.



Not surprisingly the audience explodes into vociferous applause after both works. I did, too.



Scott Morrison"

Elegance and drama in one jewel case

Steen Mencke | Denmark | 02/21/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Having thoroughly enjoyed Vladimir Jurowski's discs of Prokofiev and Shostakovich symphonies (for PentaTone Classiscs) I thought I'd take a closer look at his other recordings, which, on the whole, I find to be very deeply felt as well as beautifully executed. There is great imagination as well as great attention to detail to be found in this young Russian maestro, and I congratulate my island-EU-cousins on landing this fine catch of a conductor to lead the sumptuous LPO.



This disc represents Jurowski's first recording of Rachmaninov, and in both works, separated in the composer's oeuvre by no less than thirty-one years and yet so well suited for each other, he goes straight to the heart of the matter, which to me remains the apotheosis of emotion and a prevailing aristocratic elegance so essential to Rachmaninov. There is a silky smoothness to the "Isle of the Dead" that brings out the majesty as well as the eerie calm of the boating-theme, and though the composer once stated (to Stokowski, I think) that this and the more belligerent center-theme should contrast like "a struggle of life and death", it is really nice to experience the fighting done without the biting and hair-pulling so common in other recordings. Actually I find myself hard put to it to propose a version to rival this one for the top spot. I will, however, after due consideration put forward the last recording (1995) of that astute interpreter of the Russian romantics Evgeny Svetlanov (Warner Music) for consideration, though it is of course slightly less well recorded. Ashkenazy and Maazel can't seriously compete on this level.



Rachmaninov was a master orchestrator, and though the Symphonic Dances started out as a work for two pianos the orchestra version never fails to bring the house down. The sweep of Jurowski's conducting draws out the dance element very effectively, and the noon-evening-midnight progression in atmosphere is brought home with great clarity in this recording. Only one fly (more of a gnat, really) in the ointment: I would have liked a bit more edge to the final dance with its death knell and "dies irae"-motive, though I freely admit the piece - the last Rachmaninov was to complete - probably wasn't composed in any heightened sense of mortality, as his fatal cancer illness wasn't diagnosed until two years later. In the dances Pletnev and his fine Russian National Orchestra traverse the obstacles with ease (if a tad lumbering) and to great effect, and his recording on DG may serve well for comparison with the present one. Pletnev has a superb feeling for Rachmaninov, and (on another disc, unfortunately) presides over one of the finest interpretations available of the much maligned first symphony, in my opinion the greatest of the three - four, if you include the "Youth" symphony from 1891. Bychkov and his Colone-based orchestra are also very fine indeed, and should rightly share the gold with Jurowski.



Sad to say, I am not the proud owner of the equipment necessary to play the SACD layer of this disc, and as such I can't comment on its possible shortcommings. The ordinary CD-sound is fine and nicely detailed (especially for a live-recording), and I have to say I found the acoustics of the recording to be more than adequate. The dynamic breadth of the orchestra is in places positively impressive. I didn't notice the persistent coughing that seems to have driven one of my co-reviewers all but to despair. In my humble opinion one of the charms of a live recording is that you sense the presence of an audience, and if the sounds of their various pathologies threaten to trump the orchestra, blame should be laid squarely at the door of the recording engineers - though I do agree that bronchitis and symphony concerts generally don't go well together."