(++++) SYMPHONIES ON A GRAND SCALE

Rachmaninoff: Symphonies Nos. 1-3; The Isle of the Dead; Vocalise; Symphonic Dances. Detroit Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin. Naxos. $24.99 (3 CDs).

Bruckner: Symphony No. 6, transcribed for organ by Eberhard Klotz; Aequales Nos. 1 and 2 for Three Trombones, transcribed for organ by Hansjörg Albrecht; Improvisation by Hansjörg Albrecht: Bätruef (Alpine blessing), Thunder & Rain Machine; Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini: Brucknerblume—Window on Bruckner’s 6^th Symphony. Hansjörg Albrecht, organ. Oehms. $14.99.

     Monumentalism came to the symphonic world after Beethoven’s Ninth, as the size of orchestras grew and the desire to make music as expressive as possible flourished during the Romantic era. Famous Romantic-era symphonies, from Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique to the four by Brahms, were not actually as long as Beethoven’s Ninth, but they conveyed a sense of scope and grandeur that made them seem increasingly weighty. Eventually, certain symphonies – notably by Bruckner and Mahler – did become longer than Beethoven’s Ninth as well as far more heavily scored. And the feeling of depth, emotional intensity, extensive scoring and a certain grandiosity persisted through the end of the Romantic era and well into the 20^th century, even in symphonies whose length was more along the duration of those by Tchaikovsky. Rachmaninoff is a prime example of this phenomenon: his three symphonies last between 40 and 55 minutes – Tchaikovsky-symphony length – but they feel very large indeed, thanks to the sumptuous scoring and the very broad emotional expressiveness that permeates them. The Naxos re-release of performances by Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra – recorded at a time when the ensemble was as good as any in the United States – offers first-class interpretations of Rachmaninoff’s symphonies and gives them all their emotive due while minimizing their inescapable tendency toward bloat. Slatkin simply refuses to let the symphonies bog down: he sees them, correctly, as huge musical canvases packed with memorable tunes, very high emotional engagement, and a strongly Russian sound that pervades and underlines their sensibilities. The repackaging of these releases simply involves placing the three original CDs, each in its original jewel case and with its original booklet, within a cardboard box – so there is no update of any kind here. But because the set is well-priced and the performances exemplary, these recordings can easily be a first choice for anyone interested in the Rachmaninoff symphonic canon. Symphony No. 1, the most sprawling and least tightly knit of the three, here has considerable snap and strength, from the highly dramatic opening of the first movement to the genuinely furious Allegro con fuoco finale. No. 2, the best-known and longest of these symphonies, emerges with the inexorable flow of a broad river, pulling listeners into its sound world from the very beginning and immersing them in beauty after beauty, to such a point that the thrice-familiar Adagio is simply a crowning loveliness that lets the composer provide a highly dynamic finale. No. 3, in three movements and the shortest of these symphonies, is tight and taut in a way that the others are not, successfully balancing strongly expressive material with intense, even acerbic elements. These performances, which date to 2009-2012, showcase the Detroit Symphony at its pinnacle, responding to every nuance of the music and every command of Slatkin as conductor: there is a unity to the orchestra that is altogether remarkable, and the sound of its sections – notably strings and brass – is just right for this repertoire. These are far more idiomatic performances than might be expected from an American orchestra – and the players’ near-intuitive understanding of Rachmaninoff’s musical world also extends to the shorter works offered with the symphonies. The CD of No. 1 also includes the gloomily atmospheric, vividly imagined, exceptionally well-orchestrated The Isle of the Dead. No. 2 is paired with a small and highly popular filler item, the Vocalise from Op. 34, here played with simplicity and beauty that contrasts well with the sensibilities of the symphony. And No. 3 is joined by Rachmaninoff’s final composition, Symphonic Dances, a work that is essentially a symphony itself and that lasts almost as long as the symphony it accompanies on this disc. Indeed, the pairing of Symphony No. 3 and Symphonic Dances is just about perfect in terms of providing insight into Rachmaninoff’s late compositional style. And Slatkin’s wholly admirable handling of both works clearly shows both their similarities and their differences, while allowing the monumentality of Rachmaninoff’s thinking to come through without the feeling of pomposity that is sometimes conveyed by less-sensitive performances.

     Sensitivity is also pervasive in the seventh Oehms release of versions for organ of Bruckner’s symphonies: Hansjörg Albrecht is a marvelous guide through this strangely captivating if completely inauthentic project. The Eberhard Klotz transcription of Symphony No. 6 is particularly well-done, with the organ frequently sounding just like the orchestral sections it is intended to replicate. There is only one version of this symphony – a real rarity for Bruckner – and it is an architecturally clear one, the work flowing and building naturally through its complexities and proceeding toward its eventual climax with seeming inevitability. The Sixth is full of oddities. The first movement is marked Majestoso (erroneously shown as “Maestoso” in the Oehms booklet – a significant but thankfully rare error in this series). It is indeed a magisterial movement, and one that seems to fit the organ particularly well. The second movement is the only Adagio in sonata form in Bruckner’s numbered symphonies (No. “0” also has one). And the third movement is slower and more serious than Bruckner’s other Scherzo movements – and is virtually athematic, being focused mostly on rhythm. Somehow the finale pulls all the strange elements together in a highly satisfactory way – and Albrecht, as he has throughout this series, makes the most of the concluding movement and shows it to be a thoroughly satisfactory capstone to this somewhat problematic work. The quality of the transcription and performance here raises this disc above the level of a curiosity, turning the CD into a genuinely thought-provoking interpretation of the symphony and a very well-handled opportunity to hear it in a new and different light, which is somehow quite an appropriate one. The run-up to the symphony on the disc is also quite special. First comes the sound of bells and Albrecht’s transcription of Bruckner’s first Aequale for three trombones. Then Albrecht improvises a version of a Swiss Catholic blessing and protection ritual known as Bätruef – and briefly employs the world’s only known rain machine in an organ. This is a tin-wood drum with metal balls that dates to 1862 and is found in the organ used for this recording, at the Hofkirche Luzern. The sound is genuinely strange – and is quickly followed by Albrecht’s transcription of the second Aequale. And then comes the latest “Bruckner Window,” a feature of this series in which contemporary composers create music that is drawn from, comments on, takes off from, or (in this case) leads into each Bruckner symphony. Brucknerblume (“Bruckner Flower”) by Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini (born 1951) uses the second theme of the first movement of the Sixth as the basis for a wide-ranging (and at times quite dissonant) sonic display that eventually ends with a kind of musical question mark – after which Albrecht’s opening notes of Bruckner’s Sixth emerge as if from behind a curtain. Scartazzini’s work is certainly not Brucknerian in any meaningful sense, but as a tribute to the composer and an exploration of the experiences that today’s musicians and listeners may have when hearing the music, it is effective and thought-provoking. Indeed, this entire CD is thoughtful as well as emotionally expansive, allowing Bruckner’s music all the time and space it needs to come across to audiences as effectively as possible.