Symphony No. 3 (CD)

This is the sixth volume in our highly acclaimed Rachmaninoff series, performed by the BBC Philharmonic under Gianandrea Noseda. Of Symphony No. 1 on a previous volume in this series (CHAN 10475), BBC Music magazine said: ‘Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic have the work’s measure and their performance has a full-blooded intensity and fire.’ The series has been well received by the public and reviewers alike, and many of the recorded works will be performed by Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic at this year’s Proms.

Symphony No. 3 is the most expressively Russian of all Rachmaninoff’s symphonies, particularly in the dance rhythms of the energetic finale. Rachmaninoff wrote the symphony for the Philadelphia Orchestra, having spoken fondly of the ensemble, calling it ‘my very favourite orchestra’. The premiere was conducted by the charismatic Leopold Stokowski, but reviews were mixed – leaning towards the negative – and it was not until the re-evaluation of Rachmaninoff’s works in the 1970s that this symphony finally got the recognition that it deserves.

Rarely recorded and performed today, the symphonic poem Prince Rostislav is one of Rachmaninoff’s earliest surviving compositions for orchestra. Based on a short ballad by Alexey Tolstoy, the highly atmospheric and evocative music speaks of the ill-fated Prince of Kiev who was tragically drowned in the Ukrainian river Dniepr.

Equally unfamiliar is Capriccio bohémien, the colourful fantasy by Rachmaninoff on a gypsy theme, which takes much of its inspiration from one of the composer’s other works, the opera Aleko, based on Pushkin’s The Gypsies.