Nikolai Myaskovsky - Symphonies Nos. 2 & 10 (Gottfried Rabl)

Information

Composer: Nikolai Myaskovsky

• (01-03) Symphony No. 2 in C sharp minor, Op. 11
• (04) Symphony No. 10 in F minor, Op. 30

Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
Gottfried Rabl, conductor

Date: 1999
Label: Orfeo

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Review

Competent performances of the complex Tenth and more straightforward Second, both works heavily influenced by Scriabin

The elegiac autumnal conservatism that has made Miaskovsky’s Cello Concerto such a firm favourite (on disc at least) in recent years, is not the composer’s only mature voice. Prior to Stalin’s cultural revolution, he favoured a doom-laden, clammy mode of expression, owing much to the example of Scriabin expressly rejected by Prokofiev and Shostakovich.

The more remarkable of the two works recorded here is the one-movement Tenth of 1927; its idiom suggests a keen awareness of Prokofiev’s Parisian modernism and at least a passing acquaintance with early Schoenberg. The uncompromising, unsignposted nature of its polyphony taxed the conductorless Persimfans, a sort of ideologically motivated Orpheus Chamber Orchestra whose early performances of the piece broke down. Rabl’s Viennese forces are rather more competent, even if the interpretation as such could have been better shaped, with brazen climaxes erupting more meaningfully from the prevailing maelstrom. In the absence of strong melodic material, the score risks coming across as a purely academic experiment in dissonant chromaticism despite its conventional structural underpinnings. The opening promises much with its odd but characteristic suggestion of a Cesar Franck dragged reluctantly into the 20th century. Later on, the sound stage seems unhelpfully resonant.

The sombre Second Symphony was composed in 1912 when the composer, musically a late-starter, was only just completing his formal studies. Rachmaninov’s own Second is sometimes in evidence here, though Scriabin is the overwhelming presence, in the finale above all. The work is much more straightforward than its partner, and no doubt a good deal easier to play. This is not a CD for everyone – there are too many pages of dreary sequential writing for that – but Miaskovsky fanciers who have Kondrashin’s performance of No 6 (Russian Disc, 10/94) may well be drawn to it.

-- David Gutman, Gramophone

More reviews:
ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 8 / SOUND QUALITY: 8
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2000/may00/miaskovsky.htm

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Nikolai Myaskovsky (20 April [O.S. 8 April] 1881 – 8 August 1950) was a Russian and Soviet composer. He is sometimes referred to as the "Father of the Soviet Symphony". Myaskovsky wrote a total of 27 symphonies (plus three sinfoniettas, three concertos and works in other orchestral genres), 13 string quartets, 9 piano sonatas as well as many miniatures and vocal works. He is professor of composition at Moscow Conservatory from 1921 until his death, and há an important influence on his pupils. His students include big names such as  Aram Khachaturian, Dmitri Kabalevsky, Rodion Shchedrin and Boris Tchaikovsky.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Myaskovsky

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Born in Vienna, Gottfried Rabl studied the piano and graduated in French horn, conducting and vocal coaching at the University of Music in Vienna. In Vienna Gottfried Rabl frequently conducts the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and works regularly with the renowned contemporary music ensemble 'die reihe'. He has recorded for BMG-Ariola and the German labels Orfeo and cpo as well as Sony Classical. His numerous recordings with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra encompass a wide range of diverse musical styles, including world premiere recordings of Egon Wellesz's nine symphonies for German label cpo.
http://www.gottfriedrabl.com/

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