Rachmaninov Symphonies Nos 2 & 3; The Isle of the Dead Philadelphia Orchestra/Yannick Nézet-Séguin DG 486 4775 121:19 mins (2 discs)
The Philadelphia hasn’t sounded so well in what it was put on earth to play since the palmy days of Stokowski, Ormandy – and Rachmaninov himself (if only he’d been allowed to record more as conductor than just the Third Symphony, The Isle of the Dead and the Vocalise). Yannick Nézet-Séguin is one of the few in the world today who has everything needed to master these broad and opulent scores: an ear for detail and colour alongside an instinct for the massive spans – starting with the mighty arch introduction of the Second Symphony – and a freedom, a rubato, in music that cries out for it, which means even his preference for slower speeds never becomes inert.
And while the Philadelphia sound is lush, with a judicious engagement of portamento that was a hallmark in its Rachmaninov heyday, nothing is oversentimentalised. Even what have become clichés of romantic love music since the slow movement of the Second made its mark sound absolutely freshly moulded.
True, Nézet-Séguin ignores the exposition repeats not only in the Second’s first movement – many conductors do the same, though not Andrew Litton or Gianandrea Noseda, top contenders if you want everything – but also the Third’s; his expansive approach, which allows every strand to tell, justifies it. And never, surely, has Rachmaninov the master orchestrator glistened and loomed so perfectly as in this Third and The Isle of the Dead, as the recording provides depth and a proper perspective for those wondrous strings. On its own terms, unsurpassable.
David Nice
