January’s Limelight Recording of the Month represents the first fruits of a new creative partnership between Harmonia Mundi and London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with its Music Director Vasily Petrenko.

Clive Paget caught up with the acclaimed Russian-British conductor to talk about his label debut, a strikingly original double bill of Rachmaninov and Elgar. So, what might these two composers have in common, besides each having been awarded national treasure status?

You don’t often hear Rachmaninov coupled with Elgar. What was your reason?

To me, both composers have a sort of nostalgia or melancholy in their music. Both are quintessentially British and Russian, but I think their nostalgia has different roots. Rachmaninov was always missing his youth, his years under the Russian Empire, and always hoping that he will be able to return and that the Russian spirit, the good side of the Russian character, will clearly win. Elgar, I think, was also nostalgic about Empire, and this feeling of some kind of sunset is very present in his music. They have similar emotional strengths in their music, but at the same time, they’re so very different.

Vasily Petrenko Vasily Petrenko and the...