[ Vox Classics / CD ]
Release Date: Friday 17 May 2024
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Rachmaninov's final work - and the only one composed fully in the United States - was the Symphonic Dances. It embraces jazz elements and ecstatic expressiveness and is both a valediction and a summation of his creativity. The Isle of the Dead is a lamentation utilising a variant of the Dies irae - it is a stirring, transformative work that begins and ends in stillness. The early Caprice bohémien and Scherzo in D minor complete this programme of Leonard Slatkin's admired Rachmaninov recordings on VOX, heard here newly remastered from the original tapes.
The Elite Recordings for VOX by legendary producers Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz are considered by audiophiles to be amongst the finest sounding examples of orchestral recordings.
'At the very start of his career in St. Louis, he's already fully in tune with the composer's darkly brooding, but also deeply Romantic sound world. Slatkin's work revitalized the St. Louis forces, and it's really not hard to see why.' - Classical Net
Recorded 1979 and 1980
Symphonic Dances, Op. 45
Capriccio on Gypsy Themes
Scherzo in D minor
The Isle of the Dead