Search - Rubinstein, Golovchin, State Symphony :: Anton Rubinstein: Symphony No. 2 "Ocean"/Feramors, Opera In Three Acts

Original version sheds new light.

rumblestripca | Newmarket, Ontario Canada | 09/20/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Premiered on March 6, 1852 in St. Petersburg, this, the original version of Rubenstein's second symphony, is a four movement work of sweeping dramatic scope. It runs to about forty-five minutes, compared to the final version's roughly 72 minutes. I have not heard the latter but have read reviews to the effect that it tends to drag on and lacks cohesion. Such is not the case here. In its original form it holds up well on all counts and cranks out some really good 'big' tunes in the process.
The only apparent dissapointment on the whole disc is track 5 - Dance of the Bayaderes I - the first of four tracks of the ballet music from Feramors, which somehow miss-fires in its emulation of Tchaikovsky's ballet music - that is until you realize it was written before most of that. The playing and the sound quality are perfectly adequate, although the recording level seems a bit low, so you might want to pump up the volume a bit to get the best effect. I got my copy as a deletion at budget price and consider it a real 'find'. So if you like robust Russian symphonies you should snap a copy up before they're nla."