These two lovely symphonies certainly belong in the collection of anyone who cares about Russian symphonic music, though the performances on display here are far from perfect. Symphony No. 24’s first movement sounds very “Russian” in the cut of its themes, and its three movements (fast-slow-fast) of roughly equal length make for a perfectly balanced whole. Dmitry Yablonsky leads a decent performance, but the Moscow Philharmonic’s strings barely make it through their exposed passages in the finale, and the horns have some precarious moments too. Clearly a bit more rehearsal time would have been in order.
Symphony No. 25 has exactly the same structure as Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata: a slow opening (beautifully warm and easeful here), a moderately paced intermezzo, and a quick finale. Both of the latter movements sound distinctly under-tempo in Yablonsky’s hands, or at the very least under-inflected. The final Allegro impetuoso in particular could stand an added jolt of energy, and once again the string playing displays some obviously frayed edges. There’s not much choice in this music given the scant availability of Svetlanov’s Olympia recordings, and you’ll get a good feel for the music from this well recorded effort–but “effort” really does describe it.
