Rimsky Korsakov: The Tale of Tsar Saltan Suite, Op. 57

“The Tsar Saltan suite shows Ansermet and the Decca engineers in glittering form... The Christmas Eve suite is played with much affection and that mixture of spontaneity and remarkably graphic orchestral palette which made Ansermet's performances special... The sound [in The Snow Maiden] is remarkably warm and richly coloured” Penguin Guide

“Maria Larionoff imbues her violin solos with some feeling, and there is some excellent work from the wind principals...In the less familiar Tsar Saltan Suite...Tempos click into place effortlessly, and the lapping figure which represents the sea comes across with more character than in Sheherazade [sic]” BBC Music Magazine, July 2011 ***

“Gerard Schwarz's seasoned Seattle Symphony makes a more than favourable impression, with cultured solo playing and an impressive opulence and corporate blend. Schwarz has an articulate and often seductive story-teller in his concert-master-turned-sultana Maria Larionoff, whose immaculate tuning would alone help stave off her master's displeasure” Gramophone Magazine, July 2011

“Excellent accounts of Rimsky's Tsar Saltan suite and two rarities” BBC Music Magazine, April 2011 ****

“This is wonderful stuff, especially in such an alert and idiomatic performance...[Balakirev] achieves the well-nigh impossible by finding convincing orchestral equivalents from some of Chopin's most pianistic writing.” International Record Review, May 2011

“Neeme Jarvi draws the most seductive response from the SNO; he consistently creates orchestral textures which are diaphanously sinuous. Yet the robust moments…are caught just as strikingly and the listener is assured that here is music which survives repetition uncommonly well.”(Penguin Complete Guide)

“Batiz's Tsar Saltan is quite simply one of the finest I have heard, brightly paced and in the final tableau passionate to a fault,” American Record Guide

“Bátiz proves an impulsive, purposeful interpreter.
In the second movement, his performance is more lilting Ozawa's, with rubato more persuasive, helped by superb Philharmonia wind-playing. The fanfares which interrupt in echelon (track 2) are brisk rather than weighty, confirming a more volatile approach than Ozawa's. In the third movement the Philharmonia strings may not be quite as rich as the Viennese, but with the excellent, well-balanced recording revealing more inner detail the result is more refined, with a delectably lilting clarinet entry on the grazioso dance-rhythm (track 3). David Nolan's violin solos are more individually rhapsodic, if not always as immaculate tonally as the Viennese. In short, this budget issue is at least as compelling and just as exciting as its full-priced rival, and rather better recorded. The fill-up can be warmly recommended too, three movements from the five which Rimsky included in the orchestral suite of musical pictures from Tsar Saltan, starting with the delectable march entitled the 'Tsar's farewell and departure'. The other movements are 'Tsarina in a barrel at sea' and 'The three wonders', with the over-played 'Flight of the Bumble-Bee' hardly missed.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010