Evgeny Svetlanov’s expansive Rachmaninov First plays up the work’s overall dark cast (readily apparent from its motto theme) and persistent sense of foreboding. To this end he’s aided greatly by the USSR Symphony with its hard-edged and (in the brass) near-ferocious playing style. However, Svetlanov also is sensitive to the music’s many tender moments, conjuring up a seductively silken string tone in the first movement’s lyrical second subject–and in the poignant adagio he stretches its already intense climax nearly to the breaking point. This drawing out technique works better in the finale’s powerful coda, where Svetlanov really hammers home the movement’s tragedy.
Of course, all of these same performance characteristics can be found in Svetlanov’s sonically vastly superior last recording on Canyon Classics (with the newly renamed Russian Federation Orchestra). Here, Melodiya’s dynamically restrained, oversaturated recording is a liability in the Symphony’s many tutti passages (especially the closing bars). The appended Vocalise transcription (by V. Kin) is notable for its conspicuous use of brass instruments, making it somewhat more aurally stimulating (if also more kitschy) than what we usually hear.
