Compositions of Boris Asafjev

[jani]

Does anyone here know about recordings of Boris Asafjev's works? I'm especially interested in ballet The Fountain of Bakhchisarai.

[Alan Howe]

I'd need to be convinced about Asafjev's compatibility with UC's remit. What's his style?

[eschiss1]

When I'm back later I'll have a look at two works of his that have been uploaded to IMSLP which may help answer that question in part (see IMSLP category) assuming they are at all representative.

[Gauk]

I'd need to be convinced about Asafjev's compatibility with UC's remit. What's his style?

I believe he was a Russian nationalist. So it depends on whether you consider Nationalism a separate movement from Romanticism or a sub-category of it.

[Alan Howe]

Has anyone heard a note of his music?

[britishcomposer]

jani, you can find the complete ballet at YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNnCc-M5w0A&feature=share&list=PLEGKOC7mvop-gOYZG8NA7vSDdr0OPbR7I

[Gauk]

Confirms my opinion that all other things being equal, I'd rather have a concert performance than video of the ballet.

[Alan Howe]

I'd say this was straightforward romantic music - not especially interesting, but well within UC's remit. Here's some more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountain_of_Bakhchisarai_%28ballet%29

[Gauk]

I agree that it's not very interesting. It does show signs of its date of composition (1934), chiefly in the dramatic sections, where the extensive use of side drum is not something you would expect from a 19th C composer.

[jani]

The Fountain of Bakhchisarai ballet makes me think that perhaps Asafyev's merits are greater as a music theorist than as a composer. But still, the ballet has it's moments too, the exotic parts work better, I think.

But when you think about ballet scores as a general, it seems to me that choreography is much more important than quality of music, though of course there are ballets with great music too!

One underappreciated nationalistic/exotic ballet score, in my opinion, is Fikret Amirov's The Arabian Nights.

[Gauk]

I'm wondering how much of the "conventional romantic" parts of The Fountain of Bakhchisarai are effectively pastiche, given that the subject of the ballet is a culture clash between Polish and Tartars. Asafyev, as a pupil of Liadov, would be more at home musically with the latter.

[jerry.buszek]

I hjave an older Melodiya recording in stereo of excerpts from The Fountain of the Bakhchisrai:
Act I: General Dance; Waltz; Mazurka, Scene and Polonaise, Romance.
Act II: Scene in the Harem; First Dance of Slave Girls; Finale to Act II
Act III: Scene of Maria and Zarema
Act IV: Dance of the Horse-riders; Epilogue.
This was a 2 record lp (10-05071-74) and the other ballet excerpts were from Asafiev's Flames of Paris.