This is one of Riccardo Chailly’s finest recordings, and a wonderful concept: 1920s modernism as embodied in three very major works, one Russian, one French, and one (the Prokofiev) by a Russian composer working in France. The performances are uniformly magnificent: exciting, virtuosic, and extremely well recorded. Alexander Mosolov’s Iron Foundry doesn’t get played or recorded as often as it deserves to be–it’s actually quite tuneful, and good, noisy fun. There are three great recordings of Prokofiev’s scorching Third Symphony (music taken from his opera The Fiery Angel): Muti’s, Järvi’s, and this one. This is not music that offers its performers much interpretive freedom; you just have to play the living daylights out of it, and that’s exactly what happens here, with a particularly slithery, scurrying scherzo. Arcana also goes splendidly well–it would later turn up again in Chailly’s complete Varèse set, but it’s nice to have separately for those who don’t want to go whole hog. Available “on demand” from Arkivmusic.com, this always has been a major release, and it deserves a home in every serious collection. [2/5/2009]
