Sergei Rachmaninoff

Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony, begun in 1902 after the success of his ever-popular Second Piano Concerto, was admired for its warmly melodious style—most particularly the warm-hearted lyricism of the slow third movement. But the symphony's hour-long duration was considered excessive, and it was often performed with cuts.

Now accustomed to epic symphonies by Mahler and Bruckner, conductors today perform Rachmaninoff’s Second complete, but often in a broad, sweeping, and slightly generalized narrative. Not Kirill Petrenko and the Berlin Philharmonic.

While Petrenko performs the entire score, he has clearly also carefully studied its details. These include speedings up requested in the score by Rachmaninoff, but often simply ignored in performance. The result is that the first movement’s central development section is genuinely dramatic—a real sense of whipping up a storm rather than just a matter of brooding clouds.

Isle of the Dead is likewise full of character and atmosphere. And in the Symphonic Dances, Petrenko and his musicians characterize but reserve their energy for the final movement, building up a tremendous head of steam and a great deal of excitement.