Glière Symphony No.3 'Ilya Murometz'

[eschiss1]

As to the Kalinnikov, you may well be right (though I see it's still played once in awhile- as recently as this February, when Vanska conducted it with the LPO. Ok, not younger generation, though...

[vandermolen]

I have been away from the forum for a long time but seeing this I have no hesitation in recommending the recording by Nathan Rakhlin with the Moscow RTV Orchestra. It is by far the most exciting version in my opinion but don't get the poorly recorded version on Russian Disc, instead go for the far superior version on Bearac Reissues (BRC-3218).

[minacciosa]

As I recall the Rakhlin has cuts, but it's still a great performance.

[adriano]

Good that the Rakhlin version has been reissued (on Russian Disc, not on Melodyia). The cuts in this version are still acceptable, compared to other mutilations. I still always return listening to the old Scherchen version and the quite convincining one by Edward Downes. The Falletta one - still inferior to the Golovchion version (also on Russian Disc) has become, in the menatime, a gift for a friend :-)

[sdtom]

The Scherchen even though the age of it shows is superior.

[Alan Howe]

... forthcoming from the Belgrade Philharmonic (Serbia) under conductor Gabriel Feltz on the DreyerGaido label:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/sinfonie-3-in-b-moll-op-42/hnum/8774745

TT for the CD is 83:13 (23:27; 25:26; 7:42; 26:36). I wonder whether this will be uncut?

[TerraEpon]

Well it's the right length to be.

[adriano]

Let's hope it's a more sensitive interpretation than Mrs. Falletta's. For me, the "classic" are still Scherchen's and Rachlin's (the latter not all too complete, as far as I remember). And it's all compressed into one 80+ CD!

[MartinH]

Always a good thing that the Gliere 3rd is newly recorded - it means that at least someone is still interested. But it's one of those scores that needs a top orchestra and conductor to play it for all it's worth. The Falletta was ok, but like Botstein, too reserved. There are two living conductors who I wish would commit it to disk: Neeme Jarvi and Valery Gergiev. And an orchestra that really has time to work on it and polish it. That's the problem with Farberman and Botstein: as great as those London orchestras are, at times a lack of rehearsal time is all too apparent. I'll look forward to this new release - and pray its worth it. Interestingly, it's in SACD which seems to be going away rapidly. Should do a Blu-Ray disk like Decca/DG is doing for older recordings. In the meanwhile, Scherchen and Downes will do.

[ken]

My favorite recording is:

GLIERE - Symphony No. 3 – USSR Radio & TV Large Symphony Orchestra – Nathan Rakhlin (Melodiya LP), not the CD version which had serious tape deterioration.

[adriano]

You are right Ken, I also prefer the LP version!

Here something about the new recording:
https://bachtrack.com/de_DE/review-gliere-ilya-muromets-feltz-belgrade-philharmonic-march-2018

And I have just re-listeend to the (live, unfortunately never issued on CD) 1999 Cologne performance with Neene Järvi. A really super interpretation too!

[adriano]

,,, and now to Gabriel Feltz's new recording of "Ilya Murometz", on Dreyer Gaido label:
This is only my personal opinion:
It is excellently played (and recorded), but gives the impression of a somehow "dry objectivity", compromising the overall melodic aspect of the work. Tempi are overall fast. As Mrs. Falletta's version, this one is a good "technical", but not enough "Russian" version, just in the style most younger conductors work today. The first and fourth movements are played with a too strong, almost Prussian rhythmic emphasis. This is a work needing to be always fanatically carried forward, by singing out themes more and more while building up climaxes - and not indulging too much in lyrical passages (as Feltz does in the second movement), otherwise it loses the overall "bow". The biggest climaxes are loud, but they still do not flame! The third movement sounds like a nice (and rather rushed) ballet number à la Glazunov - a bit more rhythmic sense would have helped instead, after all it describes a sumptuous feast. Still, the climax describing the collapse of the palace is effectively done.
The most convincing movement is the final one, although in here too, rhythms are, again, too strongly emphasized and some passages are definitely too fast. The single fanfare episodes in the whole work, based on chant motifs are not chanted "Russian like" as they should. But perhaps I am a too old-fashioned-Russian-music-oriented guy?
That's why I think that this work needs a big sensual or even "erotic" approach!
Gabriel Felz can also be heard/seen in a DVD of a (semi/mis-) staged version of Respighi's "Belkis, Regina di Saba" with a female (instead of a male) narrator, reciting also the stage instructions for the ballet (!), not the just few passages Respighi had foreseen. Here too, I missed all the "interpretative" things I miss in the Glière. This does not mean that Feltz isn't an excellent conductor and that he hasn't rehearsed well enough with his Beoghradska filharmonija for this CD. In his liner notes, Mr. Feltz writes that "it is time for a renaissance" of this work – as if this would have not been happened yet!
It's a recommendable recording for the non-Scherchen, non-Downes and non-Rahklin fans. Forghet the Farberman, in there you get bored and you fall asleep.
Again, I recommend everybody to listen to the splendid (online only) version by Neeme Järvi, this is really how it should be done!
If anybody wants a "audio file version" in 4 tracks of this, please write me a personal message. I've also amended a little technical disturbance as far it was possible.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks for that expert view of the new recording. Very instructive! And an insight into what is often the problem with modern performances, i.e. commendable technical expertise, but insufficient 'Engagement', as the Germans say, i.e. commitment to the idiom of the music.

[semloh]

Yes, thank you indeed for that review. I began with the Farbermann LP set, which was the only version I could get all those years ago, and always felt there was a great work being lost along the way, and in due course I bought the Naxos recording. In light of your comments it's obviously time to invest in Jarvi!  But Adriano, before I do, tell me, in your opinion, is it really a great work as I hoped, or is it simply insufficiently creative to justify its length? I don't think music commentators have ever been enthusiastic about it. 

[adriano]

I don't care about certain music commentators - or musicologists. In my opinion, it is a really great, exciting and fascinating work. Of course, one must love Russian music and be a sensitive/emotional character. The musical built-up, the dramatism, the instrumentation - it's all super. If you love heroic-dramatic program symphonies à la "Manfred", "Kullervo" and "Sintram", you are in the right place. If great conductors like Scherchen, Stokovski, Fricsay, Rabinovitch, Downes, Rachlin etc. liked and recorded it, there must be something good about it. And I still cannot understand why Bernstein and Karajan did not record it; they would have delivered top performances. But they also did never record the "Manfred Symphony" On the other hand they did not hesitate recording works of minor quality, in comparison!