Borodin: Symphony No. 3 in A minor (unfinished)

It seems strange that such a celebrated composer as Alexander Borodin actually spent much of his life as a distinguished research chemist. While working as a professor in Chemistry at the University of St Petersburg in 1862, Borodin met pivotal composer Mily Balakirev, who encouraged him to explore the musical world, and began to tutor him in harmony and counterpoint. The rest, as they say, is history. The First Symphony is notable for the rhythmic interest of the first movement and the lively second movement, which shows the influence of Mendelssohn, with the third movement full of heartfelt romanticism– a fitting contrast to the resplendent final movement.

The work is followed by In the Steppes of Central Asia, a symphonic poem dedicated to Franz Liszt and in which Russian and Asiatic folk‐tunes are combined with other techniques to create a utopian image of the Russian landscape. Then comes the iconic Symphony No.2, regarded by many as the pinnacle of Borodin’s symphonic achievement. Completing the line‐up is the Symphony No.3 in A minor – a work that remained unfinished at the time of Borodin’s death but was later completed by the young prodigy Alexander Glazunov, who perfectly captured the older composer’s style.

The Symphonies are performed by the Symphony Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre, conducted by Mark Ermler, while In the Steppes of Central Asia is played by Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Loris Tjeknavorian.

A new recording of key Russian Romantic repertoire, Borodin’s symphonies exude lyricism and panache.

The First took five years to complete but is a work of seamless melodic invention owing something to Mendelssohn, whose influence infuses it with delicious lightness. The Second Symphony is a more explicitly Russian work, pulsing with festive and march-like elements, high-spirited and boldly nationalistic. The Third was left incomplete, and was reconstructed and orchestrated by Glazunov with considerable facility and imagination.

Borodin's second and third symphonies, plus the Overture and Polovstian Dances from Prince Igor and "In the Steppes of Central Asia" collect on a single CD all of Ernest Ansermet's Borodin recordings for Decca. All recordings have been widely praised for their dynamism and thrust, the Suisse Romande's weighty brass noted for its kindship with the Sultan's theme in Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade.

This collection includes some lesser known works by Borodin, including his Petite Suite for piano which is performed here in Glazunov’s instrumentation. Symphony No.3 was never finished. Borodin often played it to his friends and we can listen to it thanks to Glazunov writing down the first movement. All the works are interpreted by the expert Russian conductor Svetlanov.

Too much can be made of Borodin the jolly chemist, concoting pieces in his spare time as though he was fiddling with a bunsen burner. Even in an age of dilettantes, he was a deeply serious composer whose re-engagement with the symphonic form through an apparently unamenable nationalist tradition resulted in a remarkable and inimitable style, long-breathed and sinuous. There is no excess fat or sentiment in Borodin’s music, which is the mark of a master, not an amateur. With a mastery of orchestral colours to rival Tchaikovsky, he brought both German abstraction and wild Caucasian ritual into Russian concert halls.

The Second is the best-known of his three symphonies, with its popular not-quite-slow movement, but the First is an impressively weighty, goal-directed, full-scale effort for an enthusiast in the very early stages of formal tutelage (with Mily Balakirev). As well as the unfinished Third Symphony, the set includes his other, most popular music: the slow movement of the Second Quartet, arranged for string orchestra, the ruminative tone-poem In the Steppes of Central Asia (in an atmospheric recording conducted by Leonard Bernstein) and naturally excerpts from his compendious folk-epic opera, Prince Igor.