"I love Russian music" thread

[Double-A]

Wonderful minor composer. I used the op. 49 Polonaise in a concert last year and it was quite well received by orchestra and audience alike. Looking into 8 Russian Folk songs this year. Wish he had written more, but he was notoriously lazy.

We played the Russian Folk Songs in the student's orchestra years ago.  Very well worth playing and not too difficult!  Lovely solo for the lead cellist (or was it 4 way divisi? I am not sure now; there were only four cellists).

[sdtom]

The world of unsung music !

[adriano]

I actually find Lyadov's instrumentation technique superior to Rimsky's, and in many places, more innovative. I think Rimsky is considered as a top instrumentalist mainly because he wrote a handbook of instrumentation. Of course, there is a lot of brilliancy in his work, but there are so many clumsily or academically orchestrated passages, especially in his operas!
An interesting episode in Lyadov's biography is that Serge Diaghilev had commissioned him to compose a "Firebird" ballet before approaching Stravinsky. After "lazy" Lyadov could not cope with this task, Rimsky suggested him he should write a fairy-tale opera, but here too, it did not work. The tone poem "Kikimora" may be a result of this attempt.

[sdtom]

I look forward to your posts as I learn so much. An interesting what if. Scheherazade put Rimsky-Korsakov to the front with his orchestrations.

[adriano]

Sheherazade may be his most brilliant example, but formally it is quite a simple thing. Played in its piano reduction (which is always a good test for musical analysis) it becomes a bore...

[mjmosca]

I have been listening to Liapounov's grand and colorful Symphony #2, a live recording from 1998 with the great Evgueni Svetlanov leading the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and I am so thankful- while there may be clouds on the horizon, we are in a Golden Age for recordings of Unsung [and "Semi-sung"] composers. I remember back in ca. 1970 you could not find a recording of any of the Glazounov symphonies- I finally found a Russian Cultural shop in NYC [I was a member of the Glazounov Society of America and the president was a wonderful guide, who had ferreted out the source] and was able to get a couple of recordings, by special order. It was not until 1975 that EMI/Angel brought out Fedoseyev's recordings of the Glazounov symphonies- not all of them, but at least 4,5 and 6. The notes were astonishing- condescending, full of left handed complements, etc. - why do [or did] record companies undermine the sales of their records with unenthusiastic support? Happily, now we have competing sets of nearly everything that Glazounov wrote; and that is just one example.

While I agree that there may be troubles ahead, the world of Classical Music is so much richer today than it was before the age of CD and the internet.

[adriano]

Glazunov: Practically all of his orchestral works were recorded by Svetlanov and the USSR SO between 1961 and 1990 (including the complete ballets) on 18 CDS (3 boxed sets) on the rather unofficial SVET (and not Warner!) label - an edition "protected" or authorised by his widow. It's perhaps no more available, but it came out in 2008. Music Web was selling this edition directly. A real sensation! And, besides the Symphonies conducted by Fedoseyev, there is also a very satisfactory alternative version by the BBC Wales Orchestra conducted by Tadaaki Otaka on the BIS label (5 CDS).

[Alan Howe]

...or, even better, Serebrier on Warner.

[Alan Howe]

...and the Svetlanov set is still available:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Symphonies-Glazunov/dp/B003HM3BEA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522009218&sr=8-1&keywords=glazunov+svetlanov

[adriano]

Yes Alan, but this is the Warner set of the Symphonies on 6 CDs only, not the "complete" 18 CD 3-volumes on the SVET/MusicWeb licensed set I was talking about:

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2008/Nov08/Glazunov_Svet27.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2008/Nov08/Glazunov_Raymonda_SVET34-41-16.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2009/Apr09/Glazunov_Symphonies_SVET21-26.htm

Unfortunately, Svetlanov did not record Glazunov's concertos. I know Serebrier did.
Cannot remember why, but I wasn't too enthusiastic about Serebrier's recordings of the Symphonies... Perhaps because after I had to learn how (unjustly) nastily he behaved with this orchestra too...

[Alan Howe]

Yes, I'm aware the set only contains the symphonies - I referred to it because your post concluded with mentions of various recordings of those works in particular. I know nothing of Serebrier - except that his Glazunov symphonies are wonderfully played and interpreted.

BTW why should anyone pay £45 to buy the symphonies from MusicWeb when they can be purchased for far less at Amazon?

NB: they're no longer available from MusicWeb...

[adriano]

More expensive because it's a semi-private (and perhaps not too legal) label - a thing which I respect. Incidentally, the liner notes are by Rob Barnett.
Warner can sell at lower prices since they are a big company and distributed worldwide. And, if I am not wrong, the SVET-set of 3x6 CDs was released 2 years before the Warner one, so at that time there was no Svetlanov alternative for the complete Symphonies. Meanwhile, Amazon USA sells the Warner Symphonies it for 39 Dollars and Amazon UK for 27 Pds., but they were Warner were more expensive (over here in Switzerland, in Germany and in France) when they came out. The whole ambitious Svetlanov project was dropped by Warner because the CDS did not sell well enough.

[Alan Howe]

Still, the Svetlanov set - at £6-7 per disc - is pretty cheap at Amazon.

[sdtom]

Sheherazade may be his most brilliant example, but formally it is quite a simple thing. Played in its piano reduction (which is always a good test for musical analysis) it becomes a bore...

so much to learn

[eschiss1]

Well-
(1) composers are often best-known - even years later, not just during their lifetimes - by music that is not their best or most representative.
(2) Rimsky, afai(think I)k, wrote a wide variety of very interesting music of which much better things can be said. (Yes, I still keep meaning to listen to his last opera and several other works he wrote in his late years, which sound very interesting; will do so soon. I am very distractable (... shiny ferret?...))