Problematic
David Saemann | 04/09/2008
(3 out of 5 stars)
"The Iceland Symphony has made a number of fine CDs, mainly conducted by Petri Sakari. This album was a disappointment. What appears to be an interesting and well played live recording of the Rachmaninoff is hampered by indifferent sound engineering. The string tone is not always opulent, and some of the conductor's more dramatic touches may be unwelcome. There also seems to be a cut in the last movement. But the sound is just dreadful. It is bleached out, with no tone color whatsover. There are long stretches where the whole thing sounds so generalized that you really can't form a reaction to it. There are many better recordings, starting with Anissimov's budget priced disc on Naxos."