A stunning 2CD of Russian music from Mikhail Pletnev and the Russian National Orchestra that includes a mix of the familiar and the not so familiar. Liadov’s exquisite miniature tone poems and Glinka’s effervescent overture to Ruslan and Ludmila rub shoulders with a rare Tchaikovsky overture and two preludes by Tcherepnin. All the composers here had a deep knowledge and respect for the traditional music of Mother Russia, and every work on these discs has the unmistakable sound of Russia irrespective of whether it was composed under the Tsarist or Soviet regime.
Mussorgsky: Khovanshchina - Prelude, "Dawn On The Moscow River"
Tchaikovsky: Overture In F
Glazunov: Overture Solennelle, Op. 73
Lyadov: Baba-Yaga, Op. 56
Lyadov: The Enchanted Lake, Op. 62
Lyadov: Kikimora, Op. 63
Tcherepnin (N): La Princesse Lontaine - Prelude
Tcherepnin (N): The Enchanted Kingdom - Prelude
Rimsky-Korsakov: The Golden Cockerel Suite - King Dodon In His Palace
Rimsky-Korsakov: The Golden Cockerel Suite - King Dodon On The Battlefield
Rimsky-Korsakov: The Golden Cockerel Suite - King Dodon With Queen Shemakha
Rimsky-Korsakov: The Golden Cockerel Suite - Marriage Feast & Lamentable End Of King Dodon
December 1994
“Pletnev is at his most successful with the more reflective introduction to Semyon Kotko, and with the beautiful evocation of dawn over the Moscow River that opens Khovanshchina. Tchaikovsky's almost
unknown early overture is a curiosity. It is not hard to observe some of the features that were to distinguish Tchaikovsky's style, with hindsight, but who could have had the foresight to see the genius that would charge
them?”
April 2011
****
“Russian lollipops familiar (Glinka Ruslan, Borodin Prince Igor) and deeply unfamiliar (Tchaikovsky's very early Overture in F, for instance, or Nikolai Tcherepnin's Enchanted Kingdom).”
Click on any of the works listed above for alternative recordings.
Glinka: Ruslan & Ludmila - Overture
