Svetlanov's volcanic 1966 recording... heartbreakingly intense yet grippingly coherent conception, brimful of insight and flair... shoots off like a rocket... finale enshrines as adrenalin-fuelled a ride to the abyss as you will ever hear... The pathos of the symphony's Largo has to be heard to be believed (decibel levels defeated plucky Soviet engineers)... if forced to take just one version down from the shelves, I'd plump for the great Evgeni Svetlanov's unforgettably visceral first recording, warts and all (Gramophone, 2006). "(Rachmaninov) later recalled the 'massive architecture and mystic message of the painting made a marked impression on me'... This inspired what is surely (his) orchestral masterpiece". (Isle of the Dead).