Rachmaninov - Symphony No.2
Rachmaninov - Vocalise
Budapest Festival Orchestra / Fischer
Channel CCSSA 21604

Release date May 2004

The Gramophone ad to mark the new collaboration between Channel Classics and Ivan Fischer's Budapest orchestra proudly announces that "...the signing marks the culmination of (Channel's) long search for a world-class orchestra and conductor." Channel is quite right to make a song and dance around this signing; the Fischer/Budapest partnership is the modern-day equivalent of the Jansons/Oslo team of the 1980s, and I look forward to many more productions from this source. The first CD, of Rachmaninov's Second Symphony and Vocalise, may be an indication of a future repertoire area - I certainly hope so! The Budapest orchestra has been playing quite a bit of Wagner in recent years, and it shows in its control of Rachmaninov's long singing lines. Fischer is faithful to the text; for some reason, conductors like to fiddle about with extra percussion in this piece, and it wasn't that long ago that the symphony was regularly played with deforming cuts. The orchestra is arranged with the fiddles split left and right (good!) with the cellos next to the firsts, allowing them to take every opportunity to sing out directly. Fischer's approach to Rachmaninov's highly sophisticated orchestration is not dissimilar to Pletnev's on his 1994 DG recording with the Russian National Orchestra. Both conductors prefer to wield the engraver's knife rather than the broad brushes of, say, Ormandy or Ashkenazy. I've always thought that Pletnev was too calculating by half (although his orchestra does some near-miraculous things), in the early stages I feared that Fischer might be - not calculated exactly, but rather over-concerned with the letter of the score. Actually, he's just playing a long game, not overheating the lachrymose descending string lines (starting at Bar 26); no-one could accuse him of pulling his punches in the leadup to the movement's massive climax - here, as elsewhere, the distinctively dark-toned Budapest brasses are outstanding. The orchestra boasts an excellent principal clarinet (sadly not namechecked in the liner notes); the long-limbed tune in the Adagio is spun out exquisitely. Although studio-made, the recording took place at the end of a European tour, including a memorable Proms performance; it feels live, with climaxes pressed as they would be with an audience present. This is an SACD; I've only heard it in stereo so far, and find that it sounds best at a rather higher volume setting than usual. The sound per se is very good indeed - there is an attractive bloom to the string sound, and the climactic bass drum thwacks have a tremendous impact.

Sandy Matheson