Search - Mahler, Svetlanov, Russian State Symphony Orch :: Symphony 2

The Resurrection at the most extreme!

Scriabinmahler | UK | 01/16/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As you expect from Svetlanov, this performance is a journey, fraught with danger and extreme contrasts. The most problematic is the first movement, played far too slow with the characteristic exaggeration, and the overly melodramatic singing by the alto.



If you can put up with that, you realise the earth-bound performance will soon take off after Urlicht and, when the chorus joins, the amazing transformation lifts the music up on a different plane. Svetlanov creates incredibly opulent, Russian Orthodox Church-like sonority, with extra emphasis on male choral parts, which reveals the real grandeur of the finale like no other conductors have ever done. The gigantic and triumphant apotheosis dwarfs most of other recordings, thanks to sensible engineers setting the recording level low from the first movement.



Russian State SO

Large Academic Choir of TV of Russia

Natalia Guerassimova : soprano

Olga Alexandrova : alto



1'27 DDD Recording 1996 Moscow"