Sergei Lyapunov - Symphony No. 2 (Evgeny Svetlanov) mp3

Information

Composer: Sergei Lyapunov

1. Symphony No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 66: I. Largo - Allegro moderato
2. Symphony No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 66: II. Scherzo (Allegro vivace)
3. Symphony No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 66: III. Adagio
4. Symphony No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 66: IV. Finale

Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Evgeny Svetlanov, conductor

Date: 1998
Label: Naïve

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Review

PERFORMANCE: **** / SOUND ***

A belated addition to the Russian nationalist traditions, Lyapunov was near the end of his career when he wrote his Second Symphony during the tumultuous events of 1917. It was destined to remain unplayed for 34 years. It’s a heartfelt, if rather grim work, roughly the size and proportions of Rachmaninov’s Second, but with neither the triumphant ending (Lyapunov’s ebbs away in elegiac dissolution) nor the melodic riches. It opens with a chant-like chromatic motto, and by continual transformations almost every theme in the Symphony derives fairly obviously from this source, giving the work an obsessive, almost monothematic quality and lending a certain mechanical inevitability to some of its working-out. There is some splendid music here – the scherzo is a taut and furious invention – but generally the work compels respect rather than enthusiasm. It had one devoted enthusiast in Evgeny Svetlanov, who conducted the work’s eventual premiere in Leningrad in 1951 and 47 years later gave the French premiere in the live concert at the Salle Pleyel now released on this disc. The French Radio orchestra occasionally sound taxed by Lyapunov’s quite complex and virtuosic instrumental demands, but the warmth and conviction which Svetlanov, in what must be one of his last recordings, brings to this profoundly ‘Old Russian’ symphony are never in doubt. There is some audience noise and the recording is a little murky, but it’s an interesting release. The notes include a bitter little memoir from Svetlanov on how he was ejected from the conductorship of the Russian State Orchestra.

-- Calum MacDonald, BBC Music Magazine

More reviews:
http://www.allmusic.com/album/liapounov-symphonie-no-2-mw0001414321
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Liapounov-Symphonie-No-Evgeny-Svetlanov/dp/B0001B56V6

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Sergei Lyapunov (30 November [O.S. 18 November] 1859 – 8 November 1924) was a Russian composer and pianist. He studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Karl Klindworth (piano) and Sergei Taneyev (composition). More attracted by the nationalist elements in music of the New Russian School than by the more cosmopolitan approach of Tchaikovsky and Taneyev, he became the most important member of Balakirev's latter-day circle. Lyapunov also enjoyed a successful career as a pianist, and made several tours of Western Europe. He is largely remembered for his 12 Transcendente Etudes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Lyapunov

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Evgeny Svetlanov (6 September 1928—3 May 2002) was a Russian conductor, composer and though less well-known, a pianist. Svetlanov was born in Moscow and studied conducting at the Moscow Conservatory. He was principal conductor of the USSR State Symphony Orchestra (now the Russian State Symphony Orchestra) from 1965 to 2000. Svetlanov was particularly noted for his interpretations of Russian works as he covered the whole range of Russian music, from Mikhail Glinka to the present day. He was also one of the few Russian conductors to conduct the entire symphonic output of Gustav Mahler.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Svetlanov

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MP3, 320kbps

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