Reference Recording: Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2

1. Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy (cond.) Sony (abridged version)
2. London Symphony Orchestra, André Previn (cond.) EMI/Warner (complete version)

Hello friends this is Dave herwitz executive editor at classicstoday.com here with reference recordings oh and by the way since I haven’t said this in months classicstoday.com t-shirts and other merchandise available at the classicstoday.com shop have a look on the homepage of classicstoday.com where it’s rather obviously stuck up there so that you can

Go and and Source all of the fabulous merchandise that your heart desires anyway here we’re talking about reference recordings recordings that represent the consensus of critics and listeners and Kane shenti the world over at least in as much as I’ve been able to ascertain this in my 50 plus years

Paragr nating through that world and that universe but so far from the reaction I’ve gotten from you all for these pieces it seems like my my my prognostication and selections have been pretty accurate because you know the fascinating thing about this world of classical music is that there’s a lot

More consensus than you would think as I keep saying there really is um there is less of it now perhaps than there was but back in the day some of you youngans might not know this um there were many fewer recordings and many fewer record

Labels and so there was a a community of knowledge about what the recordings were everyone heard them and had opinions and over time these opinions coalesced into what we call reference recordings so the work in question now is Rock monov Symphony Number Two And as I pointed out

In other talks on this topic every piece has its own story that’s what makes it such a cool topic that’s why I love talking about this stuff because we do get to talk about discographic history and whatnot and the rck manov second symphony is a unique case I it’s it’s a

Unique type of case let’s put it that way because there are others um that are similar in that the work existed in a reference recording let’s talk about what it was here it is Philadelphia Orchestra Eugene ormandy absolutely on Sony uh or Colombia back in the day stereo that was the one um

And the thing is it it’s a glorious performance it’s fabulous but the version that ormandy plays has major Cuts in the various movements cuts which were sanctioned by rck manov himself so it’s not an illegitimate version by any stretch of the imagination but over time uh people began to question the

Necessity for playing the symphony with cuts back in those days they people just thought it was very long well it is it’s nearly an hour long I mean with cuts it’s like 45 minutes long 40 minutes I know you can get through it rather quickly with the cuts and so that that

Makes it sort of like well you know people were like a little queasy about it about keeping this the reference recording because it had those cuts even though Rak manov himself sanctioned them and it’s a perfectly legitimate way to look at the symphony I prefer it without cuts because it’s an incredibly

Beautiful Symphony and it doesn’t have anything wrong with it formally of course some people go arguably too far in the other direction and play things like the first movement Exposition repeat which I actually kind of like too actually to tell you the truth because because it tells you where the

Exposition starts otherwise the piece sounds like some you know unending flow of of of dark romantic Melody but in any case fact of the matter is whether you do cuts or no Cuts or Exposition repeats or whatever the current Trend and it was the current Trend 40 years ago is to

Start playing the symphony complete without those cuts and so as a result this fell away um as the reference recording it was no longer considered referential enough um I think that was the problem I it’s a shame too because it sort of fell by the wayside but it

Was still a great recording and oredy himself kind of went went jumped on the bandwagon in his RCA remake and here it is which is complete absolutely complete he played it complete but rumor has it and I don’t know if it’s true not that he was not happy doing it complete that

He preferred the cut version certainly um this is a very beautiful performance but the the earlier one uh some might argue is livelier and a little bit more exciting and had maybe more conviction I don’t know it’s really impossible to tell because you can’t really compare the two versions you’re talking about

Like 15 minutes more music so it’s not a question of of whether whether whether or you know conviction was less they’re almost different pieces as a result so this is a very good performance of the complete version and it does have some interesting details actually that the

First version doesn’t have but there it is so he did it twice once’s with cuts one without cuts but by the time you did the one without cuts doing it without cuts was seen as a concession on ormandy’s part and there was no way in hell the new version was going to become

The reference because remember remember remember a reference recording doesn’t have to be the best recording it just has to be the Exemplar of the work that people use for purposes of comparison that everybody thinks is very good um so in the meantime other people started doing uncut versions of the second

Symphony and the reference recording became largely due to the influence of the English musical press um which is not always bad you know people say I hate the English all this it’s not true it’s nonsense I love English music I love English artists English critics I

Can do without but you know no two critics like each other they’re like you know dogs you know critics were like dogs you know you sniff each other’s rectum and then you hate them you know it’s that’s what critics are but anyway anyway um so the rock of second Symphony

With Andre prevan and of course the London Symphony because this was recorded it was in 1973 when was the ormandy done out of curiosity um because it will tell me it was around the same time 1973 ooh this was December 1973 this was in March and April

1973 wow anyway so there you go so the point is this the point is this Previn and the lso were a very fine match they really were were wonderful together I mean they were they made fabulous recordings and they were they were stars in the UK they were on television they

Did all kinds of stuff in the UK and they could do no wrong and this is not wrong this is a prevent was very very good when it came to Russian music um and this is an excellent performance of The Rock manov second Symphony it really

Is however around the same time or maybe a little earlier there was also a recording on the same label Emi at the time with Yuri Timmer conov and the Royal philarmonic which is better and everyone who heard it thought it was better and everyone who knew it you knew

It was better but Emi did nothing whatsoever to promote it you wonder why they even made the recording it made no sense because because this was what they were pushing like crazy they were fogging it up and down this is this was par for the course by the way in the

English musical record world for example um another example of similar similar such behavior when Pavo berland remade his selus cycle with the Helsinki philarmonic which you would think is an excellent cycle and it is um done by a master cellan because he’d already done a great cilia cycle at Bournemouth um in

The UK so he should have been respected by the UK but at the same time the UK flavor boy of the month Simon Rattle was doing his cilia cycle in Birmingham and so the Birmingham civilia cycle with rattle which sucked was getting all kinds of attention and interviews and

Stuff and splashy front pages and gramophone and reviews all over the place and and the beand was completely totally sidelined and ignored um and and that’s what they did right so this was a case of that you have this very good Rak manov second Symphony and it was immediately immediately lauded as the

Reference recording for versions that were complete and uncut in the meantime everybody else was doing that and there were versions out there there like I said Tamar kov was one and there were others that were simply I think better but it’s not about better it’s about gets the most attention the most Acclaim

And the most promotion and it’s good you you you can’t you’ve asked me are there reference recordings that are really terrible um I my my short answer is no first of all there are very few recordings that are really terrible but the idea that a really bad one would

Become a reference no it doesn’t happen it doesn’t happen because because just as there is a real consensus there are actual standards there is such a thing as an idiomatic interpretation people know in in in these kinds of works these Repertory works that are part of the the general repertoire that get played

Constantly there’s there’s a range of legitimate interpretive options people know what they are they know when somebody is stepping outside of them in an unacceptable way or in a witless stupid horrible way orchestral playing is a fact it’s either good or it’s not good you can compare them of course but

Generally speaking you won’t hear people praising wretched orchestral playing as fabulous orchestral playing people make excuses for it as for example the Anthony Collins cilia cycle which has horrible orchestral playing from the London Symphony and people sort of say well it doesn’t matter because of his interpretive insights it always matters

That’s the that’s the fort Wangler lie that you could get away with sucky horrible playing all the time because the vision was so amazing and immense n i mean that’s that’s that’s cultism that’s not music anyway so there you are with Rock Bon of second symy this is the

Reference I mean it was plugged by the gramophone people the magazine the critics and the new papers the everybody because prev and the lso were a major thing back in the day and it’s it I I don’t want to say that there was any sort of Nefarious intent in declaring

This a reference recording because it’s really good it’s a beautiful performance of the symphony there are others I think that were better recorded that were more exciting subsequently of course but there that’s the reference it is what it is so ormandy was displaced um by this thing because his

First version was cut now there were certain American critics American magazines who stuck by their original ormandy recommendation and that was nice actually because it it it’s not a performance that deserves to be dismissed it really isn’t it’s it’s amazing in its way ormandy had a a

Pedigree in this music that nobody else could boast I mean Philadelphia was R bov’s Orchestra he conducted them he they did premieres of his Works he he sanctioned almost everything they did they recorded the ceros with him and whatnot back from the days of stovsky so

So you can’t ignore ormandy but on by the same token it’s a healthy thing when the baton passes isn’t it I mean you know some of you have asked the question can there be new reference recordings well here’s an example where there was there’s a new reference recording and it it

Happened somewhat artificially because there are two versions of the symphony um it’s not exactly the same thing that’s getting played but that’s what that’s that’s normal it’s it’s normal it’s par for the course now if I had to pick a reference recording well that will be the subject for another video future reference

Recordings and oh there are quite a few because there have been marvelous marvelous performances of this Symphony since there really have so keep on listening friends thanks so much for joining me and take care