Exciting and a new benchmark...
Only one real reservation about this otherwise excellent recording: Gergiev insists on adding a timpani stroke to the last note of the first movement instead of leaving Rachmaninov's own wish of double bass only. This galls me but I can live with it as this is such a wonderful new recording. Gergiev succeeds here, perhaps where he did not so much in his Mahler, in bringing out all symphonic elements whilst charting a cumulative course throughout the whole work. Each movement builds its climax effectively and the final climax in the last movement when it comes is overwhelming. Then brace yourself for the mad dash to the finish!!
