Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 1 / Symphonic Dances

John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London complete their series of Rachmaninov symphonies with this recording of the First Symphony and the “Symphonic Dances”. Rachmaninov hoped that the First Symphony, composed in 1895, would follow the success of his opera “Aleko”. However, its premiere in St. Petersburg in March 1897 was a disaster, possibly because the conductor Alexander Glazunov was drunk—in any case, he had little interest in it, and the press wrote scathing reviews. This is considered the reason for Rachmaninov’s subsequent three-year creative block, which was eventually overcome through hypnosis. He left the score in Russia when he fled before the Revolution in 1917, and it was lost. Two years after his death, it was reconstructed from a set of orchestral parts and performed for the second time in Moscow in October 1945. Since then, it has established itself worldwide in the standard repertoire of orchestras. The “Symphonic Dances” were written towards the end of the composer’s life, initially in a version for two pianos, which Rachmaninov performed with Vladimir Horowitz. The work he orchestrated was premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy in January 1941. The “Symphonic Dances” consist of three movements and refer to the theme from the final movement of the First Symphony. In this recording, the Sinfonia of London plays from John Wilson’s own performance edition of the work.