--- We are pleased to announce that worldwide downloads have been re-enabled. However, physical product shipments to EU countries remain on hold ---

Rachmaninoff: Symphony No 1 & Balakirev: Tamara – LSO Live

Rachmaninoff: Symphony No 1

  • Catalogue Number LSO0784
    UPC 822231178422

    James Mallinson producer
    Jonathan Stokes and Neil Hutchinson for Classic Sound Ltd sound engineers

    Recorded February 2015, Barbican, London

    DSD (Direct Stream Digital) recording
    Notes in English / en français / auf Deutsch

  • Performance: ****½ Recording: **** ‘This disc is a worthy successor to the conductor's previous Rachmaninov recordings and admirers of those need not hesitate to add this one to their libraries.’
    HR Audio.net

    Performance: **** Recording: **** ‘The LSO plays, as always, splendidly for Valery Gergiev. The general excellence and detail of their performance is remarkable.’
    BBC Music Magazine

    Concert Reviews

    ‘Full blooded and engrossing… the performance revealed the genius of this strange, haunted piece [Rachmaninov Symphony No 1].’
    The Telegraph

    ‘Rachmaninov surely dreamt of a performance such as this. [Balakirev’s Tamara] deserves more exposure.’
    Seen and Heard International

    ‘This music [Rachmaninov] would appear to form part of Gergiev’s cardiovascular system, the LSO playing throughout at its considerable best. [Balakirev’s Tamara] drew from Gergiev and the LSO a performance of distinction.’
    Classical Source

    ‘This is music Gergiev clearly believes in and that translated itself to his players… Here was Gergiev at his best.’
    Bachtrack

    'Again, Gergiev returns to the luxuriant character of the score. The characterisation of intention are unparalleled in discography'
    Classica

£8.99

Valery Gergiev, London Symphony Orchestra


Rachmaninoff's First Symphony has a somewhat checkered history, in no small part due to a quite possibly drunk Glazunov conducting the first performance. Despite any initial unwelcome, it is now seen as a vibrant depiction of Russian civilisation and culture, recognised for its fluid, longing and expressive features. The English composer and academic Robert Simpson calling it ‘a powerful work in its own right…convinced, individual, finely constructed, and achieving a genuinely tragic and heroic expression’.

Balakirev was a member of Russia’s ‘Mighty Handful’, and Tamara is widely considered his greatest work. Described by The Telegraph as ‘a musical dream’ it is a sensuous and melodic work influenced by exotic and oriental culture, popular in the music of nineteenth century Russia.


Composers   Rachmaninoff, Balakirev
Conductor   Valery Gergiev
Performers   London Symphony Orchestra

Track list
1. Symphony No 1 in D minor, Op 13: i. Grave - Allegro non troppo
2. Symphony No 1 in D minor, Op 13: ii. Allegro animato
3. Symphony No 1 in D minor, Op 13: iii. Larghetto
4. Symphony No 1 in D minor, Op 13: iv. Allegro con fuoco
5. Tamara

Also available on