Search - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Anton Arensky, Alexander Glazunov :: Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade; Arensky: Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovksy; Glazunov: The Seasons

When Russian music was romantic.

04/26/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"EMI has put together a sensible - even seductive - set of reissues here. The music all dates from the last decades of the C19th when Russian composers still liked to reflect the exotic, the romantic and the fanciful in their music. Evgeny Svetlanov conducts London orchestras in most of the works. His violin soloist and orchestra leader in "Scheherazade" is John Georgiadis. The Arensky variations, scored for strings and based on a Tchaikovsky song, is a work that tends to be overlooked by record collectors because, at 15 minutes, it always need to be lumped together with something bigger. Barbirolli makes a very good case for giving it serious consideration. Felicities of orchestration and luscious melodies abound in the Glazunov works. I don't rank the "Scheherazade" recording as the best on the market, but it justifies inclusion in any collection as attractive as this."