Russian

Shchedrin's Carmen Ballet, a hit in the 1960s, still amuses, delights, entertains, and, for some, enrages. It's full of Bizet's great melodies, but instead of a fancy-dress version of great hits from Carmen, Shchedrin's reorchestration features extravagant percussion effects and fascinating original variations. So it's a truly original work in the long line of parody pieces central to 20th century music, including the reworking of Baroque music by Stravinsky, Respighi, and others. Pletnev and his fine orchestra play the daylights out of it, and the engineers make the most of its "hi-fi spectacular" potential. The Concertos for Orchestra are welcome fillers. The first, subtitled "Naughty Limericks," sounds like music to accompany a riotous cartoon. The second, "Chimes," is made of sterner stuff, with some dazzling trumpet and percussion passages in its middle section and an extended finale for bells and a dark-textured orchestra. This is one of those discs you can't go wrong with.

Prokofiev's score for Ivan the Terrible is some of the best film music ever written, fusing the composer's melodic gifts, his salty version of high-romantic orchestration, his love of grand church chants and thrilling marches. Despite the lack of Eisenstein's visuals, this powerful recording captures much of the film's epic grandeur, with Polyansky drawing some massive climaxes and breathtaking moments of intimacy from his forces.

Polyansky brings plenty of energy and excitement to the faster music…with their refined brass, nicely expressive solo winds, and resplendent strings, Polyansky’s Russian State Symphony is by far the best orchestra to essay this music so far.

Glazunov’s beautifully scored incidental music for Lermontov’s play Masquerade has only survived in manuscript. With characteristic genius, he illustrates both the glittering atmosphere and dances of splendid St Petersburg balls and depicts the horrifying descent into madness of the play’s protagonist, Evgeny Arbenin, who jealously poisons his innocent wife. The shorter works on this disc likewise show Glazunov’s amazing command of orchestral resources, whether evoking an exotic oriental vision, the vivacious spirit of Hungarian music, in the Pas de caractère, or painting a mood of gentle romantic lyricism.

There are loads of pianists technically superior than this pianist, but the sheer musicality of his playing makes it captivating. Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra engages in a true partnership with the pianist. Tempest and Polonaise & Waltz are equally impressive. Like so many of other Eastern European orchestras, I get an impression that the music comes from their heart.

A performance like this makes me wonder why it isn’t (the Mass) performed more often… this mass is a treasury of beautiful sounds… I can’t imagine better readings than the ones here.

Lydia Mordkovitch performs a personal selection of violin and viola works, chosen for their idiom which combines brilliant violin technique and strong expressivity and the theme of Russia. This album has been generously supported by the Royal Academy of Music and is the first time Lydia has recorded a viola performance for Chandos.

The word ‘symphony’ is used to describe an extended orchestral composition in Western classical music. By the eighteenth century the Italianate opera sinfonia - musical interludes between operas or concertos - had assumed the structure of three contrasting movements, and it is this form that is often considered as the direct forerunner of the orchestral symphony. With the rise of established professional orchestras, the symphony assumed a more prominent place in concert life between 1790 and 1820 until it eventually came to be regarded by many as the yardstick by which one would measure a composer’s achievement.

Вот и вышел в свет очередной горячо ожидаемый отечественный сборник Four Seasons от лейбла Pitch Music Publishing и Fusion, и на этот раз посвящён музыке русской осени, музыке невероятно душевной и ласковой. Приготовьтесь увидеть музыку, нарисовать её в своём воображении: мокрые листья шуршат под ногами, с неба упала серебристая капля и растворилась в прозрачной тишине. Вдруг подул ветер, и всё вспыхнуло золотыми огнями, заблестело и заискрилось сочными красками. Всю эту нетронутую чистую красоту нарисовали для вас талантливые художники и передали с помощью музыки, познакомьтесь с проектами TETRIS, Ozone Cocktail, Second Hand Band, Goatika Creative Lab.

There is no need to wait for winter end to feel how lovely spring is. We always look for it as season heralding something fair and beautiful to come into our life. Indeed, this is the most extraordinary season invented by nature. How beautiful, charming, gentle, magnificent and flawless it is! So much imbued with solemn music, heady fragrance, exceptional warmth, flowers and vivid colors… Its coming never fails to awaken our best feelings so that, having surrendered to them, we could delight in love, joy and happiness to the full. Jane Maximova: "When you listen to a new piece of music it provokes either feeling of the past or that of the future. "Four Seasons - Russian Spring" is one of the few albums provoking feeling of the future, the very feeling we usually experience in springtime".