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As was tradition in his family, Nicolai Rimsky‐Korsakov trained to be a naval cadet. He continued to compose throughout his years in service and was appointed Professor of Composition and Orchestration at the St Petersburg Conservatory, despite having an extremely limited knowledge of music theory. He is now remembered as one of the most influential Russian Nationalist composers of all time, and was an integral member of ‘The Five’. This disc brings together the great composer’s cantatas.

The Poem about Aleksey, the Man of God Op.20 originally appeared as a chorale in his opera The Maid of Pskov, and Rimsky‐Korsakov later created a separate work from it. The Song of Oleg the Wise Op.58 is written in a marital style, as befits the subject matter of the ruler and warrior Oleg; Switezianka Op.44, a cantata for two soloists, is of a similar style.

Also on the disc is From Homer Op.60, a tantalising glimpse of what might have been if Rimsky‐ Korsakov had continued to write his opera based on Homer’s Odyssey; the work is made up of the intended orchestral introduction and opening chorus of the opera. It depicts the storm that washes Odysseus onto the shores of Phaecia, and shows the composer’s talent for writing for female voices, including a trio (soprano, mezzo‐soprano, contralto) and a female chorus. The cantatas feature the Chorus of the Moscow Academy of Choral Art and the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, as well as a host of accomplished soloists.

Recorded in 2001.

Contains extensive liner notes on the composer and works.

Some rarely heard repertoire by this much-loved composer who exerted a powerful influence over Stravinsky, and with whom Respighi studied orchestration. These delightful songs are just as rich and rewarding as his better known orchestral and operatic works.

Booklet notes.

All Russian performers guarantee an authentic interpretation.

Like Borodin, Nikolai Rimsky- Korsakov was not set on a career as a composer until he too met with Mili Balakirev, who made him abandon his career as a midshipman in the Imperial Russian Navy. Just as well he did switch direction, as his artistic leanings would eventually led him in to trouble with the Czarist censor. He eventually became a fierce opponent of the Romanov regime. Rimsky became a member of ‘The Mighty Handful’, or ‘The Five’, consisting of Borodin, Balakirev (the recruiting sergeant for the group), Cui, and Mussorgsky. In his travel with the navy he absorbed all sorts of musical and cultural influences, especially those of the Orient. He travelled widely, from the UK, America, Canada, Brazil, South Africa, France, Spain, Italy and Egypt. On these trips he often wrote songs, and in total he arranged over 140 traditional songs and composed 79 of his own. This 3CD set presents the bulk of his original songs. They date from 1862 to 1898, and this set fills a gap in the CD catalogue. A complete survey of these works is still a rarity even over a century after the composer’s death.

By 1901 Nikolai Rimsky‐Korsakov had already been a professor at the St Petersburg Conservatory for thirty years and had achieved considerable renown as a composer. Having written eleven operas of varying subject matter, his interest in folklore led him to Yevgeny Petrovsky’s libretto – based on the tales of the evil genie Kashchey – which would become the topic of his next stage work.

The opera’s story – in which the malevolent Kashchey holds Princess Tsarevna captive – has been perceived as having an allegorical meaning, with Kashchey representing a tyrannical power and the eventual triumph over him a warning of political upheaval. Indeed, one memorable performance of the work took place in St Petersburg in the aftermath of Bloody Sunday (1905), with proceeds intended for families of the victims of the tragic event, and cries of ‘Down with autocracy!’ after the performance led police to evacuate the hall. The opera is written on a small scale, with just five characters, and the realm of the supernatural is emphasised through artificial modes. Further musical characterisation can also be found in the chromaticism and altered harmonies given to Kashchey, and the heroic lyricism of Prince Ivan Korolovitch. This recording features five acclaimed soloists who have all enjoyed successful careers in their native Russia. They are accompanied by the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra and led by the late Andrey Chistiakov, the Orchestra’s conductor for twelve years.

Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky‐Korsakov showed musical promise as a child, but the pursuit of a Naval career meant that much of his grounding in musical theory was gained in between various tours of duty. Although best known in the Western world for his nationalist orchestral works, Rimsky‐ Korsakov brought Russian opera to the fore, so that by the end of his life, the genre was flourishing.

The Golden Cockerel, written between 15 October 1906 and 29 August 1907, was inspired by Alexander Pushkin’s tale and caused concern among the Russian authorities, with the story detailing the murder of a Tsar and providing a critique of the power associated with Tsarism. This predictably led to trouble with the censor, which demanded that the prologue, epilogue and fourteen lines of the libretto should be cut; Rimsky‐Korsakov refused and the work was permitted to only appear in print.

At the centre of the opera is the juxtaposition of two of the characters and their respective musical language: that of the rigid marches demonstrating the power of King Dodon and the delicate, ethereal chromaticism of the Queen of Shemaka, designed to sound other‐worldly. This recording includes the opera in full, containing none of the cuts demanded by the censor.

Of this 1985 recording by the Sofia National Opera, conducted by Dimiter Manolov, BBC Music Magazine wrote ‘the famous 19‐ minute coloratura show‐piece…is beautifully encompassed’. Elena Stoyanova sings this piece in the role of the Queen of Shemakha. The role of King Dodon is sung by Hungarian bass Nikolai Stoilov.

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Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) composed his comic opera May Night in 1878-9, at a time when he was fascinated in the stories for the supernatural and the fantastic. It was also at this time that he had been appointed to a teaching role at the St Petersburg Conservatory – a role he thought himself ill prepared for. Much to the astonishment of his fellow composers and friends – Borodin, Balakirev, and Mussorgsky he threw himself in to the study of counterpoint, writing canons, fugues – all far removed from the spirit of Russian Nationalism in music he and his friends had championed.

To show that he hadn’t deviated from the path of music inspired by Russian folklore and culture, May Night, his second opera is perhaps his most ‘Russian’. Based on a story by Nikolai Gogol, May Night, or the Drowned Maiden, Rimsky uses Gogol’s story virtually unaltered, writing his own recitatives and some of the texts to arias. This adaption of ordinary speech or dialogue from the written story gave the work a colloquial folk like feel. Many of the tunes in the opera are from a collection published in 1872 by Alexander Rubets of Ukrainian folk songs.

Rimsky’s orchestration is superb – glittering and highly illustrative of the supernatural realm of the ‘rusalki’ and in places foreshadows the music Wagner wrote in act 2 of Parsifal for the depiction of Klingsor’s Garden. A footnote to the premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre in 1880 – the role of Levko’s tyrannical father was sung by Fyodor Stravinsky, who, two tears later would become the father of Igor Stravinsky….

A 100% Russian feast - An all-Russian cast in this very Russian opera of Rimsky-Korsakov, one of the finest Russian opera composers (and still neglected in this field).

A must for opera fans and everybody with a taste for dramatic, highly romantic and athmospheric music with more then a touch of couleur locale.

Very few CD competitors in this repertoire, and certainly not in this price range. Rimsky-Korsakov’s tenth opera, The Tsar’s Bride moves away from the fairytale tableauxstyle of opera in which he had triumphed. This is a grand narrative in the Verdian style. That said, the musical language is unmistakably Russian, with a motif (Slava) running like a thread throughout the score. This motto can also be heard in Boris Godunov, Beethoven’s second ‘Razumovsky’ Quartet, and Tchaikovsky’s Mazeppa. The score also displays Rimsky’s mastery of contrapuntal techniques, and of course his extraordinary use of the orchestra combine to produce a ravishing sound.

The opera, although successful in the early years of the 20th century, and throughout the early Soviet period, fell into neglect by midcentury as did most of his stage work. Galina Vishnevskaya, the great Russian soprano did much to restore the fortunes of this masterpiece with her searing interpretations of poor deranged Marfa (the wife of Ivan the Terrible). After noticing a mad woman on the streets of Leningrad after the siege, she wrote ‘I was deeply affected by her intensity and the despair of her introverted gaze. It was as if she were trying to recall something, straining to make out, in the depths of a bottomless chasm, something known to her alone.’

This set presents a great opportunity to become more familiar with the charismatic Russian conductor, Alexander Gauk. He was also a composer but is probably better known for his orchestral arrangements, notably of Tchaikovsky’s ‘The Seasons’, included in this set.

Gauk also reconstructed the score of Rachmaninoff’s first piano concerto from the parts in 1945, thus enabling further performances after its disastrous première in 1897. He had a preference for Russian music which is shown here, eight out of the ten CDs being devoted exclusively to Russian composers.

Many of the most prominent Russian conductors of the twentieth century were once pupils of Alexander Gauk, for example, Evgeny Mravinsky and Evgeny Sveltanov. Gauk, who died in 1963, was one of those talented Russian musicians who rarely had the opportunity to experience the western lifestyle yet his fame did reach beyond his mother country.

Apart from featuring some of today’s better known symphonies by Shostakovich (Nos. 5 and 11) and the aforementioned ‘The Seasons’, the Gauk Edition comprises seldom performed works by Arensky, Balakirev (Islamey), Myaskovsky (Symphony No. 17) and Glinka and Rimsky-Korsakov.

This set contains a selection of the recordings by the great French violinist focusing on his prowess as a chamber musician.

Ferras was born in 1933 of musical parentage – his father had been a violinist and a pupil of Marcel Chailley, a devotee and friend of Saint-Saëns. Though Christian’s talent was not in dispute, his father was extremely pushy and the undue pressure he exerted on his young son probably led to the mental instability that led to Ferras’s suicide in 1982. At the age of 8, Ferras enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire and in 1943 won first prize.

He recorded for the major record companies, and his colleague and friend, the violinist Zino Francescatti, commented that these recordings with Pierre Barbizet made in 1968 over five days were ‘musical perfection’. Ferras was ranked alongside Oistrakh, Stern, Menuhin and Francescatti in the top five violinists of his age, and it was Ferras whom Menuhin chose as ‘the ideal partner’ for the recording of the Bach Double Concerto for EMI in 1959.

Included are the three Brahms sonatas, the two by Schumann and those by Franck and the intriguing, short-lived Belgian Lekeu. Disc 4 contains encores that Ferras was especially fond of.

This set is a superb portrait of a great artist, who was gifted beyond anyone’s wildest dreams but lost the fight with his inner demons of depression and alcohol dependency. Essential listening for all lovers of the violin

‘Ferras is a player who habitually turns the simplest of melodic lines to poetical song … Lovers of the César Franck who happen not to know the Lekeu could well find a real extension of their pleasure in this very good record.’ Gramophone

‘Finely balanced yet ardent performance of the (Brahms) First Sonata.’ Gramophone

Extensive booklet tribute to and survey of Ferras’s life and career

Famed for his colossal stature and rigorous rehearsal methods, Evgeny Mravinsky is generally considered to be the greatest of all Soviet conductors. The maestro was appointed chief of the elite Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra in 1938 – a post lasting 50 years and which gave rise to a truly remarkable partnership, as evident in this three-disc set. Beginning with a whistle-stop tour of Tchaikovsky’s best-known orchestral works, the compilation embarks on a series of monumental readings – striking for their cleansing of tempo and refusal to hyperdramatise. Mravinsky’s interpretation of this composer’s music was a revelation to Western ears at the time, and the combination of energy and precision that he dedicates to compositions such as the Nutcracker Suite and Symphony No.5 is to be found across the entire collection. From Rimsky-Korsakov’s dazzling Tale of the Invisible City of Kitezh Suite to Glinka’s brilliant Ruslan and Ludmilla overture, the set brims with atmospheric performances taken from live recordings spanning nearly two decades. It’s easy to hear why the Leningrad Philharmonic became known as the ‘best orchestra in Russia’ under Mravinsky’s command. Full of wonderfully sonorous playing, this release represents a small chapter of history in detailing one of music’s most fascinating relationships.

One of the 20th century’s great interpreters, Evgeny Svetlanov initially trained as a pianistcomposer before being appointed principal conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre Symphony Orchestra in 1962 and the USSR State Symphony Orchestra in 1965. The latter post was held for 35 years, a period which saw the ensemble become famed for its unique ‘Russian’ sound. Then, two years before his death in 2002, Svetlanov was sensationally fired from his position by the Minister of Culture. The reason? Too much time spent abroad and too little time spent in Moscow. Scratching the surface of an extraordinary number of recordings made by the conductor, this release is based on various live performances dating from between 1960 and 1983.

Svetlanov was particularly renowned for his commitment to the orchestral works of his homeland (a fact which makes his famous expulsion from one of the country’s top cultural positions even sadder), and the issue presents a feast in its compiling of such music; after hearing two of Borodin’s neglected symphonies, Nos. 1 and 3,we are introduced to several compositions by Glazunov before encountering the little-known figures of Dargomïzhsky and Balakirev. The collection then draws to a close with two of Rimsky- Korsakov’s least performed suites: assembled from their respective operas, The Snow Maiden and Pan Voyevoda were once national favourites. This 3CD set is not to be passed up. In combining Svetlanov’s championing of late-Romantic works with a highly individual school of playing, it offers a unique insight into the musical heritage of Russia and bursts with ineffable expression and shattering climaxes.A must-buy.