March 2013 I declare Russian Symphonies Month - Who's in? :)

[Conor71]

Quote from: ChamberNut on February 26, 2013, 08:00:46 AM

Conor mentioned Stravinsky's symphonies, and it deserves to be mentioned again.  Such gems! 

I hope you'll enjoy them, Conor.

Thanks! 

[Brahmsian]

Does a symphonic suite count as a symphony?    I wouldn't mind listening to Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade again. 

Oh well, I made this thread, so I'll just say yes!!   

[madaboutmahler]

Does a symphonic suite count as a symphony?    I wouldn't mind listening to Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade again. 

Oh well, I made this thread, so I'll just say yes!!   

I'd happily listen to it all month! Hopefully we'll get the recording of our youth orchestra playing it soon

I'll be starting my Russian symphony listening tommorow, probably with Glazunov 4.

[Cato]

Dudes and Dudettes!

I have been enjoying 2 rarities: the first 2 symphonies by Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov.

Famous for his film scores (e.g. Sergei Bondarchuk's mammoth film of War and Peace and A. Tarkovsky's The Passion of Andrei Rublev) Ovchinnikov's symphonies show both his heritage from Prokofiev and an individual voice.

Fortunately, YouTube offers both!  #1 is conducted by Maxim Shostakovich

http://www.youtube.com/v/EBE1lbQFkGM

and #2 (some surface noise)

http://www.youtube.com/v/PCgnNQ9Hsh4

[listener]

Do you mean pre-Soviet (pre-revolution) period only?    Otherwise there's an overwhelming lot to choose from.    I've started with Tchaikowsky's 5^th, will go on to Borodin, Balakirev, Lyapunov, Aliabev, Amirov, Rimsky-KOrsakov, and if I can find it, "Ovsianiko-Kulikovsky"  and Kalinnikov,
forgot: Glazunov and Glière

[Brahmsian]

Do you mean pre-Soviet (pre-revolution) period only?    Otherwise there's an overwhelming lot to choose from.    I've started with Tchaikowsky's 5^th, will go on to Borodin, Balakirev, Lyapunov, Aliabev, Amirov, Rimsky-KOrsakov, and if I can find it, "Ovsianiko-Kulikovsky"  and Kalinnikov,

There are no rules.  Pre, during and post Soviet period.  And any former Soviet state.  You can choose! 

[Brian]

I seem to have a real problem obeying these monthly listening groups. I've only listened to two symphonies at all this month so far, one Swedish and one French. In Shostakovich Quartet Month I only got through 1-5, and last month I joined in on the 26th. Ah well 

[Mirror Image]

I'll probably listen to some Prokofiev this month at some point. I've been wanting to revisit Rozhdestvensky's symphony cycle. I think I'll listen to Symphonies 2, 5, & 6 tomorrow or when I go on vacation next week. I haven't heard Rachmaninov's 3rd in quite some time, so I'd like to revisit that symphony at some point.

[Karl Henning]

I seem to have a real problem obeying these monthly listening groups. I've only listened to two symphonies at all this month so far, one Swedish and one French. In Shostakovich Quartet Month I only got through 1-5, and last month I joined in on the 26th. Ah well 

It's all purely voluntary, товарищ : )

[Florestan]

It's all purely voluntary, товарищ : )

Soviet-style voluntary, that is: Comrades, the Party needs three voluntaries. You, you and you, step forward!

[Karl Henning]

Don't scare the lad off!

[Cato]

Soviet-style voluntary, that is: Comrades, the Party needs three voluntaries. You, you and you, step forward!

Yakov Smirnoff: "In Soviet Union, you don't need to go a party: the party will come to you!"

http://www.youtube.com/v/4y5hEKfxm4M

[Brian]

Alright! I'm caving in!

Kalinnikov's two symphonies. Delightful confections with great tunes, but suffers from the typical Russian-romantic inferiority complex which drove them to insert drab fugues and other Very Serious elements into otherwise originally-voiced pieces. Luckily Kalinnikov was primarily concerned with being delightful.

[Karl Henning]

Maybe they liked the counterpoint ; )

[Brian]

Maybe they liked the counterpoint ; )

Hey, now that's a question I'd like to know the answer to! I believe it was an idea that I had picked up from some CD's liner notes, or Dave Hurwitz, that various Russian composers wedged fugues, counterpoint, and other formal Germanic elements into their symphonies in order to "prove" themselves or to make their work more "serious." But maybe they did just like it? Can anybody enlighten me further? I suspect Taneyev probably did enjoy it more than, say, Tchaikovsky.

[Brian]

These Myaskovsky symphonies are available on Naxos Music Library, from the Svetlanov series: 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 23, 24, 27, plus three Sinfoniettas, two of them 27-30 minutes in length.

I've only ever heard one single Myaskovsky symphony, and can't remember which one, so maybe these eight are a good place to start. Any favorites?

[Cato]

Hey, now that's a question I'd like to know the answer to! I believe it was an idea that I had picked up from some CD's liner notes, or Dave Hurwitz, that various Russian composers wedged fugues, counterpoint, and other formal Germanic elements into their symphonies in order to "prove" themselves or to make their work more "serious." But maybe they did just like it? Can anybody enlighten me further? I suspect Taneyev probably did enjoy it more than, say, Tchaikovsky.

Right now I am listening to Sergei Taneyev's Symphony I and Symphony III !  The First was composed when Taneyev was 16 and working with Tchaikovsky, and it already shows a  sense of thematic variation as counterpoint, the themes themselves rather Beethovenian, and there is even a whiff of Bruckner here and there, which (I would think) must be coincidental.

So yes, I suspect Taneyev liked playing with contrapuntal techniques!  The (rather condescending*) notes say that Taneyev had studied des Prez and Lassus right before composing the Third Symphony. 

Is that obvious in the work?  No, but the symphony is quite expressive, dramatic, elegiac, triumphant, and hardly an exercise from a textbook!

* by a certain David Nice who wants us so very much to realize that Taneyev was a minor composer!   

[Karl Henning]

How is that Polyansky recording of the Taneyev symphonies, Cato?

[North Star]

I've been listening to Prokofiev's symphonies now (nos. 1, 4, 5, and 6), and Tchaikovsky at the end of February. Will perhaps listen to Borodin at some point, I liked well enough what I heard a while ago after reading Leo K's posts.
And some Shosty or Rakhmaninov, too.

[Mirror Image]

These Myaskovsky symphonies are available on Naxos Music Library, from the Svetlanov series: 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 23, 24, 27, plus three Sinfoniettas, two of them 27-30 minutes in length.

I've only ever heard one single Myaskovsky symphony, and can't remember which one, so maybe these eight are a good place to start. Any favorites?

Start with the 24th. If you don't respond to it, then you won't respond to any Myaskovsky symphony.