Topic: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov(1844-1908)

[jowcol]

I just want to add myself to the list of fans of "Antar".  While Scheharezade is still a masterwork, I find Antar much more moving and introspective, and a lot of times it demonstrates that "less is more".

I'm also a fan of the Russian Easter Overture.

Also interesting about R-K was that when he and Scriabin talked about seeing different colors to different keys, there was one key (A flat major?) that R-K said that he couldn't "see".

[Dundonnell]

Agree about the Russian Easter Festival Overture

It is a pity that the Overture as a musical form seems to have fallen by the wayside All concerts used to begin with a rousing Overture and R-K's is as rousing as any The Berlioz Overtures as well, come to mind, as cracking starts to a concert

[drogulus]

I just want to add myself to the list of fans of "Antar".  While Scheharezade is still a masterwork, I find Antar much more moving and introspective, and a lot of times it demonstrates that "less is more".

I'm also a fan of the Russian Easter Overture.

Also interesting about R-K was that when he and Scriabin talked about seeing different colors to different keys, there was one key (A flat major?) that R-K said that he couldn't "see".

    It's interesting that you mentioned Scriabin because I thought of his 3rd Symphony, which like Antar has a theme that appears in all the movements.

[Maciek]

If you are interested in another aspect of Rimsky's composition you could try this CD which contains four rousing secular cantatas including the splendid vigorous  "The Song of Oleg the Wise" together with "The Song of Alexis, Man of God", "The Girl in the Lake" and "From Homer".

Colin, is The Girl in the Lake a Mickiewicz setting? I know that R-K wrote a cantata to the words of Świtezianka but haven't been able to discover its exact title. I'd very much like to hear that piece......

[Maciek]

Hm...

[Dundonnell]

Colin, is The Girl in the Lake a Mickiewicz setting? I know that R-K wrote a cantata to the words of Świtezianka but haven't been able to discover its exact title. I'd very much like to hear that piece......

Sorry, Maciek, I completely missed your question I apologise!

Yes...the cd notes say that "In 1897, just after finishing his opera 'Sadko', he(R-K) returned to Lev Mey's poem after Mickiewicz Switezianka(The Girl in the Lake), whose first lines he had already set in 1862 in a song of the same title(op. 7 no.3)-the song's main theme, incidentally, recurs in the cantata."

I shall upload the Cantata later for you, sir

[Maciek]

Aha! It turns out to be more complicated than I expected. I thought it was a straightforward Mickiewicz setting (gleaned the information from a fuzzy encyclopedic entry about various kinds of Slavonic rusalkas) but now I see it's not even a translation but an adaptation. Still, this would be very interesting to hear... I'll PM you about it.

[Dundonnell]

http://www.mediafire.com/?tvzgqoyzymy

Cantata "The Girl in the Lake" Elena Mitrakova(soprano), Dmitri Kortchak(tenor), Moscow Academy of Song Chorus and the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Vladimir Ziva.

[Maciek]

Thank you!!!!!

[ChamberNut]

Scheherezade & Russian Easter Festival Overture are both works that I heard live in concert last year.  Although I had heard Scheherezade before the concert, the live performance of the Russian Easter Festival Overture was my first exposure to the work, and I was immensely impressed.  It was outstanding as a concert opener! 

Has anyone heard the Fantasy on Russian Themes for violin & orchestra, Op.33?  It is fantastic!!  If you love Russian music, you'll LOVE this piece.  I just listened to this recording of it, featuring Lydia Mordkovitch on the violin: