Grechaninov - Symphony No. 2, Mass 'Et in terra pax'

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Grechaninov - Symphony No. 2, Mass 'Et in terra pax'

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The Second Symphony is a more original and engaging work than the First. It has claims to compelling qualities not even scratched by the First. In the second movement at 6.10 the eloquent trumpet tops out a moment of Tchaikovskian majesty in sympathy with the Fifth Symphony. The tone is predominantly elegiac-tragic with moments which drift in stimulatingly from the Pathétique. The clarinet at 8.30 sings poignantly if not as fluently as we might have hoped. Grechaninov's case is helped by Polyansky's expansive leanings and by a tremendously clear and meaty recording. Only in the last movement do the flames flicker and burn low. All in all though anyone drawn to Tchaikovsky is likely to want this music.

The Mass rather like the Sancti Spiritus mass on CHAN 9397 is for organ and chorus alone. Its style is in step as well. Older age has distanced him from the glimmering colours of Russian romantic nationalism and drawn him (without suffocation) into the Establishment church music of New York. I find little in this which has the exoticism of Rachmaninov's Vespers. A closer parallel might be Percy Whitlock or Herbert Sumsion. More C of E than Russian Orthodox. Less of the censer and more of the hassock. Choirmasters please note as this music is well worth your attention. Listen to the organ flourish at the Sanctus and I defy you not to think of Hubert Parry.

A welcome contrast then: a symphony of Tchaikovskian inclination if not rivalling the master's temperature, and a serious choral work smoothly presented with almost Elgarian illumination.

Rob Barnett