David Simmons wrote:

>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.

It's not in any edition of the score.

It is a "traditional" edit, and goes back who knows how far, along with all
of the allegedly authentic cuts ["Rachmaninoff himself told my teacher's
teacher that this is how it went...."] which used to be inflicted on the
symphony, the Third Piano Concerto, etc.

I've usually heard the timpani low E; sometimes with a bass-drum thud
added, but tuba in my concert-hall experience only about 15 years back
by the Orchestre National at the Kennedy Center, Maazel conducting.

When I conduct Rach 2; no cuts, first movement repeat taken, no added
timpani note....

I do, however, reinforce the 2nd and 4th horns with bass trombone in the
first movement after RN 17, just before the recap, if the orchestra doesn't
have serious dedicated low horn players..

Save your money!!

Joel Lazar
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Orchestra site: http://www.jccso.org/Music_Director/music_director.html