Dear Listmembers, Trivia time once again!!

I have been puzzled by what I hear on recordings of Rachmaninov's 2nd
Symphony compared to what appears in the score.  I have a Kalmus study
score that shows the last note of the first movement as a low E-natural
quarter note played ssf by the cellos and basses.  I know a different
edition of the score exists (by Boosey&Hawkes) and maybe this explains the
discrepancy I am hearing.  Twenty-one of the forty-three recordings I've
been able to hear have the timpani also play the low E, sometimes very
loudly, sometimes softly reinforcing the strings.  There is also one
recording that seems to add a tuba in lieu of the drum, again reinforcing
the basses on the low E.

Does anyone have access to the Hawkes score? I am loath to pay the full
price for an orchestral score to satisfy what is, admittedly, a small and,
to some, unimportant question.  But I will if necessary.  I have a strong
suspicion that this note is an addition by either the composer or another
eminent conductor due to a weak bass section on a specific occasion.  This
suspicion is based only upon my (admittedly biased) musical reaction to the
vulgarity of the passage with the drum.  My bias is that I've heard this
passage without the addition of other instruments from the first time I
heard this symphony in Ormandy's Philadelphia recording on Columbia, back
in the 1960's, and strongly prefer it that way.

I know some will say, "Rachmaninov without vulgarity? An oxymoron!" But I
disagree.  Tchaikovsky could be vulgar, but Rachmaninov's temperament was
anything but.  I don't think he had a vulgar bone in his body.  Even with
his heart on his sleeve his music had a certain poise and dignity that kept
it above the merely sentimental.

In any event, if anyone has any information out there (timpanists?,
conductors?) about this tempest in a teapot, I would appreciate hearing
from you.

David Simmons
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Virginia Beach, VA