Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 3 - Recommend, Please

[JSngry]

Heard the DSO do this last night, and I'd like to explore further. Seems like a tricky piece in therms of harmony and transition, attention to the finer points and not essentially "flat-lined". Are there versions on record that are successfully "micromanged" to get the full benefit of everything that's in there? Or is the piece maybe one of those things that's got a lot of good moments but can't quite come together as a whole? Edo de Waart was conducting last night, and I suppose it's to his credit that I'm left asking this, but really, I'd have preferred not having to.

So anyway...who's done a record of this one that is magnifilorious?

[mjzee]

 

[JSngry]

Unfortunately...

Fortunately, however, the Symphony #3 is a lot less ponderous than is the Piano Concerto #3.

[soulpope]

5 hours ago, JSngry said:

Heard the DSO do this last night, and I'd like to explore further. Seems like a tricky piece in therms of harmony and transition, attention to the finer points and not essentially "flat-lined". Are there versions on record that are successfully "micromanged" to get the full benefit of everything that's in there? Or is the piece maybe one of those things that's got a lot of good moments but can't quite come together as a whole? Edo de Waart was conducting last night, and I suppose it's to his credit that I'm left asking this, but really, I'd have preferred not having to.

So anyway...who's done a record of this one that is magnifilorious?

Ashkenazy Concertgebouw (Decca)

Roszdestvensky Moscow Radi Orchestra (The Classical Russian Revelation)

[HutchFan]

I agree 100% with Ashkenazy / Concertgebouw. 

I would also add Jansons / St. Petersburg PO (Warner Classics).

Haven't heard the Rozhdestvensky.  Should probably seek it out!  

[mjzee]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Unfortunately...

Fortunately, however, the Symphony #3 is a lot less ponderous than is the Piano Concerto #3.

He had two different compositions named "#3"?  How unimaginative.

[Larry Kart]

4 hours ago, JSngry said:

Unfortunately...

Fortunately, however, the Symphony #3 is a lot less ponderous than is the Piano Concerto #3.

Ponderous? In some hands, yes, but not in the right ones IMO. I recommend Sokolov.

[JSngry]

Really not interested in Rachmaninoff piano concertos. They're big draws locally, and although probably the "contemporary performer"'s fault (as well as the audiences who keep coming out to hear them), they're definitely not what I'm looking for, Seems the same attitude that gave us FUSION, just applied to a different, as Braxton might call it, continuum. But either way, no thanks.

That Symphony No. 3, though, that was an interesting piece of music last night. I'm looking forward to hearing somebody who can make it even more interesting on repeated listenings.

[JSngry]

Tried the Ashkenazy / Concertgebouw, yesterday morning thanks for the tips. I liked it, and have no need to pursue the work further, except live, if the opportunity presents itself again.

[Spontooneous]

Ashkenazy is good. For archival interest, there's a composer-conducted version from the '30s, with the Philadelphia Orchestra. It had an RCA-BMG CD reissue in the '90s.