A full-blown revival of
Anton Rubinstein's music has been long in coming, but this release may keep hope alive for those who still wait. Second in MDG's series of
Rubinstein's orchestral works, this disc's most significant offering is the Symphony No. 2 in C major, "Ocean," a work of striking originality and compelling tone painting, cast in a sweeping but coherent symphonic framework. This is the original four-movement version of 1851, which is favored today over the more programmatic, seven-movement edition of 1880. Extremely popular in the nineteenth century, this work was performed almost as frequently as the symphonies of
Beethoven,
Brahms, and
Schumann, so a reassessment of this neglected symphony is certainly warranted. However, the rest of the program is filled with several minor works of considerably less appeal, and they are decidedly inferior to the symphony for their shallowness and vulgarity. The bombastic Triumphal Overture and the silly Trot de cavalerie may be dismissed as tub-thumping crowd pleasers. Originally composed for piano, the Sérénade russe No. 1 and the Valse Caprice appear in glitzy orchestral arrangements by
Karl Müller-Berghaus, so their faults are not wholly attributable to
Rubinstein. The
Symphony Orchestra Wuppertal, directed by
George Hanson, is vivid and fully resonant in MDG's superb audiophile recording.