Balakirev's Balalaika

Started by vandermolen, October 22, 2009, 07:11:16 AM

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vandermolen

Quote from: listener on October 25, 2009, 11:20:16 AM
miserable weather day, so I decided to listen to Marco Polo 8.220 324


And did you enjoy the music?

I've been listening to Lyapunov's Second Symphony. He was a student of Balakirev's and if you like Balakirev you should like Lyapunov' whose Second Symphony comes from the fateful year 1917 but could have been written in 1880 - there are echoes of Gliere too.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

listener

#21
The Overture on Three Russian Themes would make a nice opening for a concert with Stravinsky's Petrouchka
"Keep your hand on the throttle and your eye on the rail as you walk through life's pathway."

madaboutmahler

A first proper listen to Balakirev today, with his 2nd symphony. Enjoying it very very much, brilliant music!

At some point would be very keen to get a recording. Which one out of these two, which both look very appealing?
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"Music is ... A higher revelation than all Wisdom & Philosophy"
— Ludwig van Beethoven

Superhorn

   Balakirev is a sadly neglected composer, except on recordings .  I've never been able to understand the neglect  at live concerts of his symphony no 1. It's such a stirring, colorful and melodious work . It would make a welcome change at concerts from  the endless repetitions of the Tchaikovsky symphonies 4,5, and six, as marvelous as those thrice familiar works are . 

mc ukrneal

Quote from: madaboutmahler on March 24, 2013, 07:14:20 AM
A first proper listen to Balakirev today, with his 2nd symphony. Enjoying it very very much, brilliant music!

At some point would be very keen to get a recording. Which one out of these two, which both look very appealing?
[asin]B000BLI366[/asin]
[asin]B00000DLY9[/asin]
I've always been a bit disappointed by the Hyperion version. It's not bad (though sound probably not as good as Chandos), but for me seems to lack a bit of frission at times. I've heard very good things about Svetlanov's first versions of these works on Melodiya, but I think they may be harder to track down or OOP. Naxos have also released a couple discs, but I am not familiar with them.
Be kind to your fellow posters!!

madaboutmahler

Thanks for the feedback, Neal. I'll make sure to get hold of that Sinaisky disc at some point. :)
"Music is ... A higher revelation than all Wisdom & Philosophy"
— Ludwig van Beethoven

SonicMan46

Mily TTT! Last post in 2013!  Since 2012 to just recently, Nicholas Walker has completed a 6-CD set of recordings on Grand Piano of the Balakirev piano works - the reviews have been quite good (see attachment w/ 4 of the 6 reviewed); I own just V. 1 on Grand Piano AND V. 1 & 2 of the older ASV recordings from the 1990s (all shown below), which have received less favorable comments vs. Walker's more recent performances - the only other 'complete' set is w/ the Russian Alexander Paley (1990s or before?) - this is a 6-disc box licensed by Brilliant (info on Amazon HERE) but w/ mediocre comments.

The Grand Piano CDs - some seem available on disc but not cheap; MP3 or other DLs are options; and streaming is possible, e.g. Spotify has 5 of the Walker discs listed - SO, just curious in this 7 year hiatus, how has your Balakirev collection changed - new recommendations? And anyone enjoying this solo piano abundance from Grand Piano?  Dave :)

     

     

vers la flamme

^I got the first of those Nicholas Walker Balakirev discs as a free download at some point, and I listen to it occasionally. It's three piano sonatas, all of which are essentially different variants of the same sonata, which makes it not so fun to listen to straight through unless I'm feeling analytical. I'd like to hear more of his piano works.