Unless The Bells is planned, this first and last symphonic Rachmaninov release completes John Wilson’s survey of the composer’s symphonism, a catalogue-thick of recorded competition, including Ashkenazy (thrice), Maazel, Ormandy, Previn, Slatkin, de Waart (both twice), Weller, and with Măcelaru (complete in one issue, Linn) waiting in the wings. Despite Brian Pidgeon’s pristine production values and Ralph Couzens’s exemplary recorded sound, there are reservations about Wilson’s approach to the First Symphony during which the strings can come across as a little undernourished (maybe too few players), the first movement opening arrestingly with a well-projected (to be cyclical) gesture, the whole a little underplayed though – tame – with lyrical music lacking expanse and dark passion, mirrored in the Finale, lacking punch and a coda short of glower (compare with Walter Weller’s Suisse Romande/Decca spectacular or Slatkin’s St Louis take for Vox, ditto Detroit/Naxos, oblivion hammered home) whereas Wilson ensures the second movement is attractively detailed and spectral, with the third ideally wistful.

The swansong Symphonic Dances (for Ormandy and Philadelphia) fares better, the first movement’s Non allegro tempo spot-on, textures airy, and the piano has all its notes (if you know what I mean), the saxophone-led middle section flowing and shapely, the coda’s look-back to the star-crossed First Symphony touchingly nostalgic. The middle movement, although fluidly handled, lacks the edge needed to fully reveal its haunted ballroom character, and if the Finale is sometimes short of emotional fire, the languorous middle section advantageously avoids indulgence. However, there’s a deal-breaker at the very end, an unfortunate/unconvincing compromise between a long-held gong hangover (Wilson less long/too short, in other words) and – reminder, he was in at the birth – Ormandy’s totally abrupt cut-off. Chandos CHSA 5351 [SACD] perhaps epitomises this uneven series.

https://www.chandos.net/products/reviews/CHSA_5351