Klassik Com: Triple 5 Stars April 2012; Limelight Magazine: "These two major works from Rachmaninov’s last decade form a substantial and varied program, given here in excellent performances and recorded in very vivid Super Audio format. Thirty-something Russian virtuoso Yevgeny Sudbin gives a dashing account of the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, investing the work with all the requisite drama, colour and wit.".
When Sergei Rachmaninov composed his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in 1934, it was
after an almost complete seven-year silence - so complete that he was thought to
have renounced composing. Nevertheless, the Rhapsody was finished in only seven
weeks, with a speed that was possibly stimulated by Paganini's theme itself; taken
from the 24th Caprice for solo violin it had already been used by Schumann, Liszt,
Brahms and Szymanowski and is ideal for variation. Rachmaninov's Rhapsody consists
of twenty-four continuous variations, of which the 18th has become so popular that
it is often included separately in compilations of 'classical favourites'. The
variations fall into larger sections, forming a structure which has caused the work
to be called 'Rachmaninov's Fifth Piano Concerto'. The soloist on the present
recording is Yevgeny Sudbin, whose highly acclaimed discography includes a
Rachmaninov solo recital, as well as a recording of the Fourth Piano Concerto
described in BBC Music Magazine as an ' exhilarating, barnstorming, spine-tingling
performance'. The warm reception that the Rhapsody received no doubt spurred
Rachmaninov on to the composition of his Third Symphony. The work of a reluctant
exile from his native Russia, its themes often have a marked Russian character, but
are treated with great ambiguity. One example is the 'motto theme' which is heard at
the very opening of the symphony, but which cannot be heard for what it really is
until the finale (and then only fleetingly): a variant of the Dies iræ theme, which
the composer used so often - for instance in the Rhapsody - as a symbol of
mortality. With this disc, Lan Shui and his Singapore Symphony Orchestra follow up
on their 2008 recording of the composer's Symphony No.2, which impressed critics
around the world, for instance on the website Klassik Heute: 'Lan Shui allows
himself to be guided by the music itself, by its arcs, meanderings, sudden impulses,
melancholies and triumphs . and at the same time propels his marvellous orchestra to
musical heights from which the entire panorama of this work can be perceived.'
Extra material for download
