Yevgeny Svetlanov (conductor)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Overture: The Queen of Spades, Op 68
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, CD87
La Mer, CD111
Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943)
5 Études-Tableaux, P160, Nos 2 and 5 (orch. Ottorino Respighi)
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op 34
Philharmonia Orchestra (Tchaikovsky, Debussy)
BBC Symphony Orchestra (Rachmaninov)
London Symphony Orchestra (Prokofiev)
rec. 1979 (Prokofiev), 1999 (Rachmaninov), 2001 (Tchaikovsky, Debussy), London
ICA Classics ICAC5181 [66]

Yevgeny Svetlanov (1928-2002) was one of the giants of the great school of Russian conductors. He made hundreds of records over forty years. First working with the Bolshoi in the early 1960s, he took over the USSR State SO in 1965 and ran it with an iron fist for thirty-five years. From the 70s onwards, he also began working with Western orchestras. In England, he first worked with the LSO, then with the Philharmonia, but his activity was really worldwide. In his late years, he forged strong relationships with the Residentie Orkest in the Netherlands and the Swedish Radio SO.

I saw him twice: first with the Philharmonia in Birmingham’s Symphony Hall in June 1996. Most had come for Evgeny Kissin in the first half playing Rachmaninov’s Third. Svetlanov conducted Stravinsky after the interval. A few years later in 2000, he toured a few English cities with his Swedish band and a programme that included Brahms’ Fourth Symphony. Later that year, around Christmas time, he could be heard (but to my regret, not by me) at Covent Garden conducting The Royal Ballet’s Nutcracker – luxury casting, indeed.

I count this as ICA’s sixth Svetlanov release and it is centred around part of a concert from the Royal Festival Hall in March 2001. The concert was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and included Joshua Bell in the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto after the overture. This is not included on this CD. This small catalogue of records from ICA contains one priceless jewel: the CD devoted to Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky and Rachmaninov’s The Bells reviewed brilliantly by my colleague John Quinn on its release in 2012. If you get only one of the series, this would be my pick.

This release begins with the overture to Tchaikovsky’s opera The Queen of Spades – or Pique Dame, as the record guides used to call it. This is a brooding and dramatic introduction and the performance we have here is exactly what you would expect from Svetlanov, namely very direct and up-front. The overture is based on themes of fate, love and the Three Cards. If when hearing it you are intrigued to hear the whole thing, look at my colleague Mike Parr’s recent review of the Ozawa performance – one of my favourites too – or Ralph Moore’s survey.

Next comes the second half of that 2001 London concert, containing the two works of Debussy. Svetlanov’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune is very slumbersome. Of course, this is entirely appropriate for Mallarmé’s faun, who is drowsy and falling in and out of his dreamworld but for a library recommendation of Debussy’s wonderful early showpiece, it will not do. I recently reviewed a scaled-down performance from the Nash Ensemble. Despite its idiosyncrasies, this full-fat version is beautifully played by the Philharmonia, who in those days were under the expert tutelage of the great Christoph von Dohnányi. The Philharmonia principals of 2001 vintage led by flautist Kenneth Smith do their illustrious heritage credit.

Svetlanov’s La Mer is impressive and more mainstream in interpretation. I listened to three other of his recordings of this, one of his favourite works. Here, with the Philharmonia, he gets through the three symphonic sketches in 27 minutes. He was faster with the LSO in 1975 (24 minutes) and with his own Russian State SO in 1993 (25 minutes). Just a couple of months before the London concert, he gave it with the Orchestre National de France (released on Naïve) and took 29 minutes over it. These differences do not look too much on paper but they do tell when you hear the different accounts together. I think the LSO version (review) is my favourite of the four for its sheer force, vigour and moodiness (and the brilliant trumpeter Howard Snell) but this new account would come second. Some may find it a little ponderous, I suppose; indeed, one London critic at the time said it was more Le Lac than La Mer but this is unfair and tempi are not in the main extreme. In the first movement, all is delicate and seductive. Like the sea, themes appear and develop for a while before disappearing again in a swell. The BBC recording seems to favour the wind, brass and percussion over the strings but this is fine by me and you can really hear details that are in the score but often unheard over the massed forces of the orchestra. You can even hear the Russian maestro himself as he exerts himself occasionally such as 2 bars before “9” where Debussy asks for Un peu plus mouvementé (5:20). The orchestra blazes assuredly at the movement’s close.

The second movement Jeux de vagues is a sparky scherzo-like movement. The intricacies in the masterful orchestration are all audible and very well played here. The movement serves as an interlude between the storms set aside it.

In his final movement, Debussy paints a ferocious storm gaining momentum rising to a tempest. The rumblings at the start are ominous in this performance and set the scene for what is to come. At cue “46” in the score (1:34) Svetlanov starts the main movement’s tread assuredly and the climax at 3:06 is impressive. He is sensitive to the score and by six bars before “54”, when the flute and oboe begin their divine melody, he has slowed the pace and prepared us perfectly. There is once again refinement and grace in the phrasing of the players. Svetlanov seems to be enjoying himself as he bounds forward to the brilliantly bright sunlit conclusion. In my colleague Gwyn Parry-Jones’ review which was published online here as I was writing mine, he pondered on the ending of the work. The thump with full orchestra is also present on the ONF (Naïve) reading and the Russian one (Exton) so I think it is by design rather than by accident. In the LSO recording from 1975, Svetlanov follows the letter of the score, although the pace and fury of that finale is so intense I don’t think most of the ecstatic audience would have noticed anyhow.

In 1999, at a concert with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Svetlanov programmed two Études-Tableaux of Rachmaninov in the beautiful Respighi orchestrations of 1930. This performance has actually been released before on BBC Legends but this new release will reach a wider audience I expect. The more substantial Op.39/2 reminds me of The Isle of the Dead in the sombre sway of its opening. It is a miniature tone poem of great finesse and well worth checking out if you don’t know it. We get a rendition from Svetlanov and the BBC players worthy of the care that went into the piece by its creators. The last piece on the program is Overture on Hebrew Themes by Prokofiev. After the bright sound picture captured by the BBC engineers in 1999, the duller sonics we hear in 1979 seem recessed at first, but the ear soon adjusts. Whilst not being a particular favourite, this piece is worth an occasional outing and the rendition here is fine. It cannot be easy to play, nor, I would think, to conduct, and there is occasionally a hint of ruggedness in the ensemble, but it is good to hear Svetlanov in Prokofiev again.

I wonder how many other radio recordings were made by the BBC of Svetlanov. Do they have him in any English music, for instance? He famously did Gerontius with both the LSO and the Philharmonia in the 1980s, even flying the London Symphony Chorus to Moscow for a repeat performance with his USSR State SO in 1983. He did Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony with the LSO and plenty of Russian repertory that I don’t believe has surfaced, either. Collectors will be grateful for this disc and will thank ICA for the time and energy they have spent making it available.

Philip Harrison

Previous review: Gwyn Parry-Jones (January 2025)

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