Liadov: The Enchanted Lake, Op. 62

Conductor Antonio Pappano leads Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia on this recording of one of the 20th century’s most thrilling and emotive symphonies, Sergej Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2. This is coupled with Anatoly Liadov’s beautiful tone poem The Enchanted Lake.

Of the six orchestral works on this recording three are in the composers’ own piano duet versions; two others were transcribed by people in whom the composers had great faith (Rimsky-Korsakov here being considered the composer of Night on Bald Mountain, as Mussorgsky had died), and it must be presumed that Lyadov approved the choice of Kalafati who “was held in great esteem by his colleagues and pupils” (Baker’s “Biographical Dictionary of Musicians”). Three of the six pieces of music involve the supernatural, while the remaining three present “magical” soundscapes in their different ways. The first two items depict very different midsummer festivities.

As a further note, four of the pieces featured on this CD are World Première Recordings. The CD booklet contains highly informative notes by Anthony Goldstone.

With CDs around forty in number and a busy concert schedule stretching back more than a quarter of a century, the British piano duo Goldstone and Clemmow is firmly established as a leading force.

Described by Gramophone as ‘a dazzling husband and wife team’, by International Record Review as ‘a British institution in the best sense of the word’, and by The Herald, Glasgow, as ‘the UK’s pre-eminent two-piano team’, internationally known artists Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow formed their duo in 1984 and married in 1989. Their extremely diverse activities in two-piano and piano-duet recitals and double concertos, taking in major festivals, have sent them all over the British Isles as well as to Europe, the Middle East and several times to the U.S.A., where they have received standing ovations and such press accolades as ‘revelations such as this are rare in the concert hall these days’ (Charleston Post and Courier). In their refreshingly presented concerts they mix famous masterpieces and fascinating rarities, which they frequently unearth themselves, into absorbing and hugely entertaining programmes; their numerous BBC broadcasts have often included first hearings of unjustly neglected works, and their equally enterprising and acclaimed commercial recordings include many world premières.

Lyadov was born in 1855 and taught in the St. Petersburg Conservatory, as well as being a conductor and composer. He was very interested in folklore and most of his works are on a small scale for instruments, orchestra and choir. He had a great understanding of fairy tales and poetry and some works resemble those of Glinka and Rimsky-Korsakov. These interpretations are in the expert hands of Svetlanov.

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.

Recordings made in 1993/94

Anatoly Liadov (1855-1914) was, like his Norwegian contemporary Grieg, a miniaturist. At a time when his fellow Russian composers were composing operas, symphonies and concertos, he concentrated on producing a remarkable collection of wonderfully scored and evocative orchestral miniatures. He did sometimes venture into larger musical forms, and this is illustrated by 'Fragment from the Apocalypse', a large unfinished work that shares the same visionary sound world as Scriabin. One of his most famous works 'the Enchanted Lake' is suffused with a Debussian soundscape. This work, like 'Kikimora' (about a tiny thimble sized human hating witch who listens to stories told by her cat) were intended to be incorporated into operas that were either never started or finished.

Liadov was the first composer Diaghilev asked for a ballet on the Russian folktale 'The Firebird'. Liadov's legendary laziness saw to it that he never completed the commission - another pupil of Rimsky Korsakov, the young Igor Stravinsky was asked instead and made it his first major ballet success.

Liadov's research into folk music - another thing he had in common with Grieg, laid the foundations for other composers including Bartok, Kodaly, and Vaughan Williams to preserve and exploit the rich musical heritage of folk music in Europe.

Petrushka follows the last year’s release of Stravinsky’s Firebird on Signum and is the second in a three-part series of works from Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes, performed by BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Thierry Fischer. These recordings encapsulate the vivacity and passion of Stravinsky’s tale of three life-sized puppets, seemingly brought to life.

The disc also features three works by fellow Russian and Ballet Russes composer Anatoly Liadov: dark and dramatic tone-poems on Slavic witches and demons in Baba-yaga and Kikimora, and a tranquil and fairytalelike portrait of the Russian countryside in The Enchanted Lake.