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| Decca digital (Full price) (LP) 410 124-1 (Cassette) 410 124-4 |
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| CBSO, Rattle (3/84) ASD1436111 |
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| BPO, Maazel (3/84) 410 894-1 |
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| BPO, Maazel (12/82) 2532 065 |
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No sooner have we had the simultaneous issue of two fine versions of this last orchestral work of Rachmaninov, the Symphonic Dances, than Ashkenazy adds this to his Rachmaninov series with the Concertgebouw. Happily anyone who has already plumped for either Rattle's warm and spacious reading on HMV or Maazelhs crisply incisive one on DG will find a contrast so striking here that it seems quite a different work. In any case, one could—as the numbering of the sides suggests—give priority to the superb account of The isle of the dead, which I count the finest issue yet in the whole of Ashkenazy's Rachmaninov series. The burnished string tone of the Concertgebouw Orchestra is ideally suited to this darkly atmospheric piece, arguably Rachmaninov's finest orchestral work, and the weight of sound in the Decca digital recording—not least in the bite of the brass at the climax and the thudding bass drum and aggressive timpani at the last fortissimo—makes me long to hear the CD version.
Maazel's LP version on DG, which I list above, is powerful too, but at a faster speed far less ominous. It comes as a fill-up to his tough and severe version of the Third Symphony, a generous coupling, but Ashkenazy's coupling here is also most generous, for the Symphonic Dances, 33 1/2 minutes long, are squeezed on to a single side with no deterioration of the excellent, vividly atmospheric recording quality.
It may give some idea of the extremity of contrast with Rattle, if I mention that the Birmingham performance lasts nearly 38 minutes. In all three dances Ashkenazy brings out a sinister side to this last work, for his generally fast speeds give a demonic quality to many of the dance rhythms, a point established very clearly at the start. Rattle is relaxed and bouncy, underlining the word 'dance' in the title, where Ashkenazy is menacingly urgent. In the central waltz Ashkenazy is less seductive than Rattle, less obviously charmful but fresh and for the moment carefree. The close of that middle movement then underlines the vein of bitterness and melancholy as Ashkenazy sees it before the last movement launches on a devil's tarantella. In that Rattle is comfortable rather than demonic, and the Birmingham players hardly match the Concertgebouw in virtuosity any more than they did against Maazel's Berliners, even if—as I explained in my review—that hardly detracts from the characterful impact of the whole performance. Ashkenazy in the spaciously melodic passages matches Rattle in warmth (where Maazel sounds more calculated in his rubato), to provide a bitter-sweet mixture. Where Rattle relates this late work very much to early Rachmaninov, giving one a warming experience, Ashkenazy's view more directly reflects the moods of the composer's last years. With its powerful coupling it makes a necessary first choice.
EG