GRAMOPHONE AWARDS SHORTLIST 2018

Rhythmic bite and echoes of nostalgia: the Bavarian Radio Symphony Chorus and Orchestra excel in Rachmaninov tenor Artavazd Sargsyan is pushed in his upper register in some of the sacred works; in La Vendetta, Chantal SantonJeffrey and Yu Shao sound too close in age to be mother and son. But there are fine things elsewhere: Gabrielle Philiponet and Sébastien Droy are gripping as Mary Stuart and Rizzio; Judith Van Wanroij mesmerises and touches as Zelmire in Fernand, and also gets to sing the ravishing motet Christus factus est, written in Vienna late in 1842. The choral singing has wonderful richness, clarity and fervour, above all in the Messe vocale, which is breathtaking. A tremendous set, it adds immeasurably to our understanding of Gounod’s work. Very highly recommended indeed. Tim Ashley (4/18)

Rachmaninov The Bells, Op 35a. Symphonic Dances, Op 45b a Tatiana Pavlovskaya sop aOleg Dolgov ten a Alexey Markov bar Bavarian Radio Symphony a Chorus and Orchestra / Mariss Jansons BR-Klassik F 900154 (74’ • DDD • T/t) Recorded live at the Herkulessaal, Munich, a January 14 & 15, 2016; bJanuary 26 & 27, 2017

This superlative performance of Rachmaninov’s choral symphony The Bells is one of those stratospherically accomplished, ‘cosmic’ ones that Jansons says he is always trying to attain. For a long time my benchmark as a conductor of The Bells has been Evgeny Svetlanov. The fact that it was the last work he performed in London shortly before his death in 2002 lends his association with the music an additional, poignant dimension, and the recording of that event with the BBC Symphony Orchestra transmits the passion, intensity and radiant glow that were qualities forever associated with a Svetlanov concert. His 1979 recording with the USSR Symphony Orchestra, which was my top choice in a Gramophone Collection (A/09), is similarly a lasting reminder of his interpretative power and expressive flexibility. Call me obsessive, but I have just found in Moscow a previously unpublished live recording which Svetlanov made in 1958 in the Conservatoire’s Great Hall

(SMCCD0157). Well restored and remastered, it is notably quicker than Svetlanov’s later versions but it is still a performance which, as Pushkin said in another context, ‘breathes and reeks of Russia’, with a positively diabolical third movement of alarum bells.

Like Svetlanov, Jansons has Rachmaninov in his very soul; but he is also able to capitalise on his remarkable ear for colour, clarity and atmosphere, coupled with his distinctive energy and probing depth of emotional understanding. His Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, captured at Munich concerts in January 2016, is at its peak; the choir is well drilled, disciplined and red-blooded in the Russian text; and the three soloists are impeccable. Oleg Dolgov brings a lyrical, seductive tenor voice to the first movement; Tatiana Pavlovskaya is enchanting in the second, secure in intonation at that perilous climax where Rachmaninov has the soprano sing a high G while the orchestral harmony is luring her towards an A flat or an F; and Alexey Markov has a sonorous, burnished quality ideal for the finale. Jansons is well known and acclaimed for the detail that he can bring out of a score, and such is the

8 GRAMOPHONE SHORTLIST 2018

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