The LSO recorded an excellent version of this symphony for EMI under André Previn, and the orchestra clearly hasn’t forgotten how this music should go. Valery Gergiev offers some original touches, such as the very slow lyrical theme in the scherzo, or the crushing climax of the first movement. There are a couple of places where his evident affection threatens to let the music luxuriate to the point where it sounds a touch enervated, particularly the main theme of the Adagio, even though the basic tempo isn’t notably slow. Happily, Gergiev keeps the finale moving well, which is important because this performance takes the exposition repeats in the outer movements. I do wish that he had not added the usual hard timpani thwack on the last note of the first movement–Rachmaninov’s percussionless original idea is so much better. But this is a minor point. Overall, then, this is a fine performance, well engineered, and the chain-link fence (or is it snakeskin?) cover art is just what will come to mind when most people think of Rachmaninov. Okay, maybe not.
