 My Favorite Stereo 3rd, April 19, 2005
Stokowski gave the world premiere of Rachmaninov's 3rd Symphony in 1936 and, according to the notes which accompany this CD, the composer thought it was "played wonderfully." Amazingly, Stokowski never conducted it in public again. Then in 1975, at age 93(!), Stokowski taped this extraordinary performance with the National Philharmonic. The recorded sound is wonderful. While I retain a certain fondness for Ormandy's version (available only in a set of all three symphonies), this Stokowski is my favorite stereo account. To my ears, it is vastly superior to such competition as the ponderous and uninflected Previn, the unbending Boult, the uninvolving Ashkenazy, the torpid Temirkanov, the poker-faced de Waart, and the less well-played Janssons.
For me, Stokowski's joins three other recordings at the summit in this work. 1) Rachmaninov's own reading (the cheap Magic Talent CD has marginally better sound than the RCA and Pearl transfers) is magnificently-played by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Like Richard Strauss, Rachmaninov was a fairly straightforward interpreter of his own works, but there is no shortage of delicately expressive nuance here, and the climaxes simply soar. 2) There is a "live" Koussevitzky/Boston Symphony account (currently buried in a 10-disc CD set from Maestro Celebre) that burns with interpretive conviction - what a fantastic ensemble Boston was in those days! 3) Finally, the most wildly-impassioned performance of all: Golovanov with the Soviet All-Union Radio is my all-time favorite, along with the composer's own account. This was once available on a 2-disc Arlecchino CD set, coupled with Golovanov's first-ever recording of Rachmaninov's one-act opera "Aleko," plus absolutely stunning accounts of Rachmaninov's Fantasy for Orchestra "The Rock" and the cantata "Spring." This set is hard to find, but it's definitely worth the search.
This marvelous stereo account of Rachmaninov's 3rd by Stokowski is essential listening, along with the earlier mono accounts by the composer, Koussevitzky and Golovanov. And Stokowski's has by far the finest recorded sound. |