R. Gerhard - Concerto for Orchestra Symphony 2 (Original) - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Completed during World War II, Honegger's Symphony No. 2 gives voice to the composer's horror of mankind's barbarity and inhumanity perpetrated during the conflict. It's power derives from the seamlessness of it's construction and the intensity of it's expression. The work's dark, brooding mood comes to a profoundly moving climax in the finale's elegiac chorale tune, played on first violins accompanied by trumpet, thus ending the symphony on a more optimistic note than might be expected. Henri Lazarof's Concerto for Orchestra No. 2, 'Icarus' is a volatile, richly coloured score, and Poema, composed as a wedding gift for Gerard Schwarz and his wife, is both romantic and brilliant.

Marking their latest collaboration with their conductor laureate Vladimir Ashkenazy, the Philharmonia have returned to recording with a stellar live-performance of Rachmaninov's ebullient Symphony No.2 in E Minor. This is the second in a new series of Rachmaninov's symphonies, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy in live performances with the Philharmonia Orchestra. The first of Symphony No. 1 (SIGCD484) was met by critical acclaim InchPerhaps the most satisfying of all [Ashkenazy's recordings of the Symphony]...Inch (BBC Music Magazine) InchAshkenazy knows how to shape detail and soar in the big melodic moments. The Philharmonia sound is muscular and alert, from the opening woodwind solos to the mighty, stirring symphonic tutti of the finale.Inch (The Observer)

Mendelssohn wrote his Second Symphony or Lobgesang ('Hymn of Praise') in 1840, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Gutenberg's invention of movable type. This symphony-cantata, as the composer termed it, is duly permeated with a rich and often jubilant spirit, and patterned after Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in it's solo vocal and large choral forces. The rich orchestral palette is supplemented by thrilling and expressive vocal writing, which includes solos and duets of great beauty, and culminates in a blazing fugal ending.