Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky Korsakov

Pierre Monteux conducts Tchaikovsky & Rimsky-Korsakov

Live recordings dating from 1945 and 1958

Kabalevsky - Piano Concerto No. 3

Kabalevsky's Third Piano Concerto, ‘Dedicated to Soviet Youth’, completes the trilogy of instrumental concertos for young people, preceded by his Violin Concerto and his First Cello Concerto (Naxos 8.553788). Like the Third Piano Concerto, the Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra, based on the composer’s own song, School Years, is an optimistic, uncomplicated work depicting scenes of happy childhood. Rimsky-Korsakov’s Piano Concerto, built on a Russian folk-song collected by Balakirev, is an inventive and virtuoso work whose single unbroken movement structure is copied from Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto

Alexander Gauk Edition

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.

Prokofiev - Pierre et le Loup

CD + Book

Capriccioso (Under the Blue Skies)

Russian Opera Arias & Songs

Works by Mussorgsky, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov & Tchaikovsky

These recordings were made in London in 1949–52. Most notably, they capture the great Russian bass in his greatest role, Boris Godunov, just six months before his Covent Garden début in Mussorgsky’s opera.

Rimsky Korsakov - Orchestral Works

Evgeny Mravinsky - Historic Russian Archives Edition

Conductor Evgeny Mravinsky has become a legend. This Russian musician died in 1988 but his name is still well-known world-wide. Until his death he held the post of chief conductor of the elite Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra for an incredible 50 years. He left behind numerous recordings of his, to say the least, moving interpretations. After 1961 he only allowed live performances to be recorded. Thus most of the recordings in this set, made between 1946 and 1983, are registrations of actual concerts. Beginning with Tchaikovsky Russian composers took a prominent position in Mravinsky’s repertoire. In fact the majority of the works in this set are Russian ranging from Mussorgsky to Liadov and from Prokofiev to Zhivotov.

Ernest Ansermet - Decca Recordings 1953-1967

Recorded: Victoria Hall, Geneva 1953-1967