Credits:

Vladimir Ashkenazy

Description:

A masterpiece that showcases Rachmaninoffs youthful brilliance, along with Respighis arrangement of Pictures at an Exhibition.Ashkenazy, who was appointed Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, recorded the complete set of Rachmaninoffs symphonies and orchestral worksa repertoire in which he excelswith the orchestra in 2007. This disc is available as a separate release on an HQ hybrid disc. It features excerpts from the opera *Aleko*, which Rachmaninoff composed at age 19 for his graduation exam in the composition department at the Moscow Conservatory and which was a huge success at its premiere, along with the labor-of-love *Scherzo*, composed when he was 15. This album features a unique pairing: five pieces selected by Rachmaninoff himself from his piano masterpiece *Pictures at an Exhibition*, which Respighi then orchestrated and titled. Ashkenazy, w