Szymanowski- Symphonies Nos 1 & 2

The LSO’s performances brim with virtuosic energy.

Valery Gergiev, making them [the LSO] sound as passionate as he obviously is himself about Szymanowski’s music. There’s some wonderfully committed vital, colourful playing here, and the Barbican recording lets it all through to us.

The LSO revel in these romantic sounds with wonderful playing in all sections.

Gergiev gives a passionate account of this [second] symphony thanks both to some breathtakingly beautiful solos from individual members of the LSO in the work's slower sections and typically incisive playing in the more lively ones as demonstrated, for example, by the crisp articulation of the 2nd symphony's final fugue.

Valery Gergiev’s LSO sound is technically brilliant.

Being a natural inheritor of Scriabinesque exoticism, Szymanowski is bound to bring out the best in Scriabin’s most imaginative interpreters, which is why Valery Gergiev proves such a convincing interpreter of both works. He draws excellent playing from the London Symphony Orchestra, balance some complex textures with an expert ear and the clear, close-set recording has an impressive dynamic range. Very useful, too, to have the first two symphonies coupled on a single CD.