Early Rachmaninov meets mature Rachmaninov with the two dances and intermezzo from his student opera Aleko of 1892 and the Second Symphony completed in 1908. Vasily Petrenko’s sympathetic way with Rachmaninov has already been evident on his Avie set of the piano concertos and Paganini Rhapsody with Simon Trpčeski, his Avie recording of the Symphonic Dances, The Isle of the Dead and The Rock, and on the release earlier this year of the EMI Third Symphony (1/12).

All have been performed with the RLPO, an ensemble into which Petrenko has instilled a sound that makes it a persuasive voice for the Russian Romantics. It is good to hear him devote so much interpretative attention to the Aleko extracts. This is music of youthful promise rather than the fully fledged Rachmaninov style that came with the watershed of the Second Concerto but Petrenko finds in it expressive points to make and energies to harness. But the chief attraction is the compelling interpretation of the Second Symphony: its first movement, which observes the exposition repeat, is broadly conceived, eloquently arched in phrasing but with a secure underlying pulse and sense of where the music is heading. Beauty without a hint of sentimentality colours the central lyrical theme of the scherzo, which itself is crisply articulated and judiciously graduated in dynamics. The slow movement, mellifluous and mellow, complements the passionate sweep of the finale, crowning a performance that has a true feel for the organic manner in which the symphony is conceived.