I) Lagro - Allegro moderato 00:00 II) Allegro molto 18:11 III) Adagio 27:18 IV) Allegro vivace 42:52 USSR State Symphony Orchestra Dir. Yuri Temirkanov, 1977 -------------------------------------- This Rachmanoniff's masterpiece was composed in 1906-1907, during the time the composer and his family spent in Dresden, Germany. Rachmaninoff, during that period, was still lacking confidence in his writing, as his first symphony was considered and utter disaster and the critisism was quite harsh. His first draft of this symphony left him unsatisfied and he kept revising it for months. The final work was premiered by the composer himself in 1908 and gained such a success, that Rachmaninoff earned not only another Glinka Award, but also a sense of self-worth as a symphonist. Because of its formidable length, the piece was subjected to many revisions, particularly in the 1940s and 1950s, that reduced it from nearly an hour to 35 minutes.Prior to 1970, the piece was usually performed in one of its shorter versions. Since then, orchestras have used the complete version almost exclusively, though sometimes with the omission of a repeat in the first movement. [more information can be found on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._2_(Rachmaninoff)]