Beggars can’t be choosers, and if you really must hear every Russian symphony you possibly can (yes, I’m in that club) then you currently have little choice regarding the only completed example by Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov (sources list a Second Symphony under the title Karelia from 1935, the year of his death, but this seems never to have seen the light of day).

Ippolitov-Ivanov was one of those rather few composers directly associated with the Mighty Handful (around 1880) who went on to find a comfortable niche in the Soviet system, not least in the early days of Soviet radio. He added the ‘Ippolitov’ apparently to distinguish himself from a critic with that common name. Unfortunately he neglected to add anything to his music that might distinguish him from his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov, his idol Tchaikovsky or the figure of Robert Schumann, who stands as godfather to the entire tradition of academic Russian symphonism.

Within those limits his E minor symphony does have its moments, even some rather touching ones in the ‘Elegia’ slow movement and in the Trio section to the nigh-on plagiaristically Schumannesque Scherzo. Otherwise it is the quintessence of routine. Even the Turkish Fragments and the Turkish March deliver far less than the titles promise, and certainly less than the vivid Caucasian Sketches by which Ippolitov-Ivanov remains best known.

The recording is more than 30 years old and is not a good advertisement either for the orchestra or for the engineering at the time. For the most assiduous collector, alternatives for the symphony at least are traceable, conducted by Veronika Dudarova (Best Buy Classical) and Gary Brain (Conifer, 11/98 – nla).