Alexander Scriabin (1872–1915)
The Poem of Ecstasy (1905-1908)
Symphony No. 2 (1901)
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra/JoAnn Falletta
rec. 2019-2022, Buffalo, NY, USA
Naxos 8.574139 [60]
JoAnn Falletta and her Buffalo orchestra have a certain knack – to understate it – that has been indulged by Naxos. Their preparedness to plough fields that are either unfashionable or close to the precipice edge is evidenced by disc after disc. Just a selection of their work includes CDs of orchestral works by Griffes, Schmitt, Novák, Moeran and Glière.
Aside from its embrace with Naxos, this orchestra has not a few landmark recordings in its long history. These date back to 1970s vinyl. I think of Sibelius’s Lemminkäinen Legends with Lukas Foss conducting (Nonesuch H-71203). Even further back they made an early (December 1946) recording (radio transcription) of Shostakovich’s Leningrad with William Steinberg preserved on a Classica d’Oro CD. More prominent still is the one-time LP of the Gershwin show overtures, made with Michael Tilson Thomas in 1976.
Falletta “and co” achieve a well-judged yet instinctual ebb and flow to the fragrantly fragile and mercurial Poem of Ecstasy. Serendipitous strands are plucked to the fore to swoony or passion-wrought effect. The trumpet rings out in imperious pride. Not once does one feel that this rising tide of emotions veers from concentration on Scriabin’s ‘line’ no matter how many temptations obtrude with their siren voices. There are some excellent recordings of the Poem out there including Stokowski, Järvi and Svetlanov but this one presents the music with all the seduction, censer-smoke and impact that 2019 sound can muster.
The Second Symphony first crossed my “field of view” with a broadcast of the CBS version conducted by Jerzy Semkow with the LPO. This work lacks the high-flown inspiration of the Poem of Ecstasy. However, as a discursive five-movement symphony it commands interest; in the long Andante (tr. 4) its sun-warmed dialogues (e.g. between flute and solo violin) are pleasingly inveigling. Its Tempestoso blusters along but is not a patch on the similarly epic-restless six-movement First Symphony (1899-1900). The fifth and last movement of the Second is triumphant in a florid Glazunov-like Romanov manner. That said, it too wanders off piste from time to time but the excitement in victory it engenders is well put across.
The Naxos recording quality does exemplary justice both to the ecstatic filigree and the truculent artillery of the brass benches.
Good notes by Anthony Short point out something that had never registered with me before. That the premiere of the Symphony had been conducted in Moscow by the composer Anatoly Liadov.
Rob Barnett
Previous review: Leslie Wright (April 2023)
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