RACHMANINOV: Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 27 – Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra/ William Steinberg – HDTT

by | Nov 27, 2006 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews | 0 comments

RACHMANINOV: Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 27 – Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra/ William Steinberg – HDTT  96K DVD-R, 46:04 ****:

Transferred from a Command Classics 4-Track Tape, this stunning sound document gives us a powerful restoration from the baton of William Steinberg (1899-1978), a too-often under-rated maestro whose control of large forces made its potency known to us who recall his Bruckner Sixth with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Although Steinberg utilizes the edited version of the Largo full score, the colossal effects and intensely driven string sound, along with the brass punctuations of the first movement, provide a marvelous panorama, a nostalgic recollection of the Russian steppe. The might and the tonal finesse of the Pittsburgh strings made it a sure rival to the Philadelphia sound under Ormandy; and Steinberg’s is always the more searching intellect. Listen to the cymbal crash after the pause in the second movement Scherzo! The string articulation and the rhythmic detail, along with the blend from battery and woodwinds, creates a procession of the boyars to make Rimsky-Korsakov envious. Steinberg winds the orchestra up into a terrific color machine, string pizzicati, triangle, and trumpet all competing for stellar space.The ever-popular Adagio movement sets a halo of sound around the clarinet’s extended solo, and the lush reminiscence proceeds from there. Plenty of teary-eyed sentiment for the audiophile, and the middle voices achieve a delicious hum over the pizzicato strings.

Oboe and clarinet join the string choir for a series of chants and responsories. The stretti build to an inexorable flourish, HDTT libido in vivid Technicolor. French horn and violin take up where the explosion left off, the flute and oboe now savoring the string aura. The effect is so unabashedly Wagnerian, the speakers of the audio system may blush. Steinberg and ensemble immerse themselves in the final Allegro full throttle, and they refuse to let up. The march and its accompanying ornaments gathers militant forces, the PSO trumpet threatening to displace Scriabin’s solo in the Poem of Ecstasy. The violin line sings with the flute, a tender remembrance of things past. String pizzicati jump out of the sound system; the bassoon starts the long, martial procession that gathers all the orchestral forces into a ball: we now have enough world and time. Any number of anti-climaxes cannot deter Steinberg and this rich panoply of Russian sound from their predestined course, a shattering peroration. High velocity 96K/24 Rachmaninov for any collector’s library!  [Don’t be put off to see this is mastered from a commercial quarter-track tape instead of double-track. HDTT has high quality hiss reduction software and uses it with taste; there is no annoying hiss or artifacts connected with the effort…Ed.]

— Gary Lemco

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