Tonal Clothing Slatkin conducts Rachmaninov - heard by ANDREW SCHARTMANN '... Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra perform admirably.'

Rachmaninov's third symphony is often viewed as a stylistic departure from the composer's more romantically inclined works — those with which the general public is more familiar (eg the Second Piano Concerto, the Second Symphony, and the eighteenth variation from the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini) — for in it we find a somewhat starker harmonic language and texture that does away with the full-bodied lushness favored in earlier times. That said, we still find a healthy selection of Rachmaninov's signature sweeping melodies throughout the work. And so one of the symphony's principal challenges is to resist the natural urge to shape an otherwise modern language with an old-style approach; the desire to squeeze every ounce of romanticism from the composer's tunes must be suppressed.

In this respect, Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra perform admirably...

SERGEI RACHMANINOV

LEONARD SLATKIN

NAXOS

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

RUSSIA

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA