"The Isle of the Dead has long been a Jurowski speciality and, unless you insist on the sensationally doom-laden, heavyfooted approach of late-career Evgeny Svetlanov (BBC, 1/08 et al), there should be plenty to enjoy. The surprising iridescence of Rachmaninov's sonic palette is brilliantly conveyed ... You may find the symphony's sonic oddities less distracting than I did"

"The rocking of the boat, the lapping of the waves - Jurowski's Isle of the Dead unerringly beckons us to our final fate. The playing is first-class"

Vurdering: 5/5

"Once you've seen The Isle of the Dead, the painting by the Swiss symbolist artist Arnold Böcklin which inspired Rachmaninov's work of that name, image and sound are impossible to separate: hooded cypresses, rocky outcrops, clouded sky, lonely boatman; slow rhythms, dark textures, mournful woodwind, a musical reference to the Dies irae from the mass for the dead ... The London Philharmonic Orchestra has paired The Isle of the Dead (1909) with Rachmaninov's Symphony No 1, a more youthful work ... It's a soaring, big-boned work, overflowing with melody and characteristic Rachmaninov melancholy. If only the composer had lived to see how a partnership like Jurowski and the LPO, superbly prepared, can make this work blaze and sing"