Search - Serge Rachmaninoff, Semyon Bychkov, Orchestre de Paris :: Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2

Rugged impact instead of soulful sheen -- a great Rachmanino

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 10/30/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Semyon Bychkov was a young firebrand of a conductor fifteen years ago whose career seems to have fallen from the highest level. Here, caught in his heyday (1990), he conducts the Orchestre de Paris in great sound, and his interpretation of the popular Rachmaninov Second Symphony is a real origianl. Instead of swooning into the typical post-romantic soulfulness one hears on so many recordings, Bychkov sees this as a stronger, sterner work, even rugged at times. Some of the climaxes bring out an intoxicating ferocity one never expected from this music.



Considering that Rachmaninov's orchestral writing can verge on the treacly, giving the symphony more grit and spine helps it. But the tender moments in the slow moments feel much more genuine than one usually encounters -- tis isn't Hollywood streaked with Russian tears. I think this is one of the strongest readings on disc, even though Jansons, Temirkanov, and Previn (his first account with the London Sym. on EMI) are also excellent in their own right."

I have worn out 2 copies

T. Higginson | Franklin, VA USA | 09/27/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First I wore out a cassette of this performance. Then a CD from moving it to and fro device after device. This is the only copy of Rachmaninoff's great 2nd symphony you'll need."