Glière Symphony No.3 'Ilya Murometz'

[sdtom]

Anxious to hear it.
Tom

[sdtom]

Falletta's performance gets a 4-star rating in the Daily Telegraph Review of Feb 1st (maximum: 5-stars).

I received my copy from Naxos and after careful listening have to disagree with the Daily Telegraph Review. While I still prefer  the Scherchen recording for overall performance the digital sound of Falletta and the BPO certainly enhance her performance.

Tom

[adriano]

The Falletta recording is very well played, but a bit too rushy and its Romanticism gets lost. I also miss the Russian flavour... Am I wrong by saying this? At least the sound engineers haven't done a sonic spectacular, but respected a natural orchestra balance.

[mjkFendrich]

I have listened to Falletta's version once in order to decide whether I should buy the disc or not,
but despite the low price I've been so unimpressed/disappointed that I refrained from purchasing it.

At the moment my favourite version is the live recording with Järvi in our downloads section
provided by britishcomposer.

[mbhaub]

At long last I received by copy of the new Naxos Ilya - and I have to say I'm a little disappointed. It certainly is a step up from the earlier Marco Polo/Naxos with Donald Johanos. But Downes still rules the roost as far as I'm concerned.

No small reason is the recorded sound. It's not clear and vibrant. The fault is the recording venue and you can hear the problem at the end of the first movement - the long reverb in the hall might sound great if you're there - but it causes problems in recordings where the sound becomes a blurry mess. Orchestral detail is lost in the haze. Would Blu-ray make a difference? I don't know. But Chandos got better sound, and so did Farberman's team. Try the brass chorale half-way thru the first movement: the articulation is muddy. The contrabassoon in the 2nd seems behind the scene. The percussion sounds like they played in a different room.

The tempos are faster than Gliere may have written, and mostly I'm ok with that. One place that I really think misfires is the opening. At the quicker pace all the brooding atmosphere seems missing. Then, the conductor takes some blame: where's the thrust and drama? I missed the sharp edges needed in the "battle" scenes. Ultimately, I missed a sense of a great, epic drama being told. There was no cathartic ending.

Maybe it's all Gliere's fault and no matter how hard the musicians and recording team try, this thing just can't be captured on a recording. I won't give up though. Hopefully, Gergiev and the LSO or Jurowski and the LPO will give it a shot. Or even Muti and Chicago.

Today I gave this recording a third listen, this time with a surround sound system and used some processing to get 6 channel surround and a subwoofer. Cranking the volume way up made a huge difference. Now the recording has more impact. Some of the wind writing becomes much clearer, the bass drum has more impact, the sizzle on the cymbals can be heard. The contra solos in the second movement have more presence. My first listen was with a 2-channel system, the second listen with a very high quality pair of headphones with vacuum tube amplification. The home theatre system made this much more enjoyable! The volume must also be high to give the recording a chance to bloom. So, even though there aren't enough complete Il'yas out there:

Downes is still #1
Falletta #2
Botstein #3
Golovchin #4
Johanos #5
Farberman #6

The only reason I leave Scherchen off the list is the mono sound and a scrappier orchestra. I'm sure he didn't have a lot of rehearsal time, and it shows.

So, if you try the new Naxos, blast your neighbors out and you'll love it.

[Alan Howe]

You're right. We need a top-flight conductor and orchestra - not to mention recording team.

[sdtom]

Thanks for the top notch analysis of the recording. I still like the Scherchen recording. Yes the mono really dates it but it has something the others don't have. The Chandos is the best sounding.
Tom

[sdtom]

Watched a British 1933 film "The Ghoul" and the soundtrack made excellent use of Gliere"s Symphony No, 3. The percussion was used quite well.
Tom

[adriano]

I completely agree with all those who have pointed out the flaws of the Falletta recording. Bravo sdtom! And, as I said in another post, it's a rushy thing without any sense for epic and Russian breath! Suppose even Gerghiev would not underatnd the piece. Incidentally, I was also disappinted by Falletta's Respighi CD on Naxos...

[sdtom]

Perhaps Mr. Haub is right and this doesn't transfer well to CD. Would love to hear it in person sometime.
Tom

[sdtom]

Again I listened to both the Falletta and Scherchen and upon yet further examination I can see that his comment about not enough rehearsal time is a valid one. I can also accept that the Falletta is rushed in spots. I guess it is the tempo I like in the Scherchen.

Enough analyzing of this work for me I'm back to listening to the 55CD Tchaikovsky box.
Tom

[sdtom]

I was listening to a radio show last night called the Green Hornet and part of the music was from the fourth movement of our beloved Ilya Murometz. Perhaps this piece is far more popular than we realize?
Tom

[mbhaub]

When you think about it, the Gliere was fairly popular and well-known to older generations, so it's use in a soundtrack shouldn't surprise us. In the 78 era, because of the expense of making/buying the heavy disks, most of the albums produced were of what we now would recognize as standard repertoire. Tchaik 4, 5, 6, Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorak 7, 8, 9, and so forth. It wasn't cost effective or prudent to record obscure music that no one would buy. So that there were at least 2 78 versions (Stokowski & Desormiere) is really remarkable. Some names you wouldn't ever find on 78's: Raff, Spohr, Reinecke, Goetz. The Russian repertoire was limited to the standard stuff we know today. I doubt there was a 78 cycle of Rubinstein symphonies. So that the Gliere somehow showed up in that era is means that it had something going for it that it stood out above the crowd.

[eschiss1]

Raff was, however, on an (well, 2 sides or 3...) acoustic, before 78s (a movement from the Schöne Müllerin Quartet). As was Rubinstein (the slow movement, I think, of Op.17/2, from the same quartet- Flonzaleys, might have been, wouldn't surprise me...? I forget.) (Ok, irrelevant. Sorry)
And are you sure there were no recordings at all of Raff's Cavatine or other well-known shorter works in the 78 era? I am a little surprised there.

[mbhaub]

You're right: Raff's Cavatina and several of Rubinstein piano works (Melody in F) showed up on 78s. I was thinking in terms of large orchestral works, symphonies in particular. The Kalinnikov 1st was also on 78s. The major orchestras used to program it, and nowadays even the smaller regional and amateur orchestras seldom play it - maybe this generation of conductors don't even know it.