Svetlanov

What we have here are Miaskovsky’s 27 symphonies with two overtures, two early tone poems (one after Poe; the other, Shelley), three sinfoniettas, one serenade, one Divertissement, one Concertino Lirico, one Slav Rhapsody and a piece called Links. It’s all the music for orchestra apart from the two concertos and choral works with orchestra (Kirov is With Us and Kremlin by Night). Note that the version of the Sixth Symphony here is the ……

Rob Barnett @ Musicweb-international.com

What we have here are Miaskovsky’s 27 symphonies with two overtures, two early tone poems (one after Poe; the other, Shelley), three sinfoniettas, one serenade, one Divertissement, one Concertino Lirico, one Slav Rhapsody and a piece called Links. It’s all the music for orchestra apart from the two concertos and choral works with orchestra (Kirov is With Us and Kremlin by Night). Note that the version of the Sixth Symphony here is the ……

Rob Barnett @ Musicweb-international.com

What we have here are Miaskovsky’s 27 symphonies with two overtures, two early tone poems (one after Poe; the other, Shelley), three sinfoniettas, one serenade, one Divertissement, one Concertino Lirico, one Slav Rhapsody and a piece called Links. It’s all the music for orchestra apart from the two concertos and choral works with orchestra (Kirov is With Us and Kremlin by Night). Note that the version of the Sixth Symphony here is the ……

Rob Barnett @ Musicweb-international.com

What we have here are Miaskovsky’s 27 symphonies with two overtures, two early tone poems (one after Poe; the other, Shelley), three sinfoniettas, one serenade, one Divertissement, one Concertino Lirico, one Slav Rhapsody and a piece called Links. It’s all the music for orchestra apart from the two concertos and choral works with orchestra (Kirov is With Us and Kremlin by Night). Note that the version of the Sixth Symphony here is the ……

Rob Barnett @ Musicweb-international.com

What we have here are Miaskovsky’s 27 symphonies with two overtures, two early tone poems (one after Poe; the other, Shelley), three sinfoniettas, one serenade, one Divertissement, one Concertino Lirico, one Slav Rhapsody and a piece called Links. It’s all the music for orchestra apart from the two concertos and choral works with orchestra (Kirov is With Us and Kremlin by Night). Note that the version of the Sixth Symphony here is the ……

Rob Barnett @ Musicweb-international.com

What we have here are Miaskovsky’s 27 symphonies with two overtures, two early tone poems (one after Poe; the other, Shelley), three sinfoniettas, one serenade, one Divertissement, one Concertino Lirico, one Slav Rhapsody and a piece called Links. It’s all the music for orchestra apart from the two concertos and choral works with orchestra (Kirov is With Us and Kremlin by Night). Note that the version of the Sixth Symphony here is the ……

Rob Barnett @ Musicweb-international.com

What we have here are Miaskovsky’s 27 symphonies with two overtures, two early tone poems (one after Poe; the other, Shelley), three sinfoniettas, one serenade, one Divertissement, one Concertino Lirico, one Slav Rhapsody and a piece called Links. It’s all the music for orchestra apart from the two concertos and choral works with orchestra (Kirov is With Us and Kremlin by Night). Note that the version of the Sixth Symphony here is the ……

Rob Barnett @ Musicweb-international.com

What we have here are Miaskovsky’s 27 symphonies with two overtures, two early tone poems (one after Poe; the other, Shelley), three sinfoniettas, one serenade, one Divertissement, one Concertino Lirico, one Slav Rhapsody and a piece called Links. It’s all the music for orchestra apart from the two concertos and choral works with orchestra (Kirov is With Us and Kremlin by Night). Note that the version of the Sixth Symphony here is the ……

Rob Barnett @ Musicweb-international.com

Glazunov’s symphonies hover on the edge of the repertoire. You almost never see them programmed in live concerts, but every couple of decades a complete cycle comes out. Curiously, none of the Russian recordings are very good. The performances are uniformly heavy and dull, whereas Glazunov’s music, symphonic or not, demands a balletic lilt and a light touch. His symphonies are full of good tunes and are beautifully crafted, but despite exciting moments they aren’t terribly dramatic and so need to played swiftly and vivaciously.

"He will quickly be forgotten." That was Rimsky-Korsakov's unkind but not inaccurate prediction made shortly after his pupil Anton Arensky's death from tuberculosis at the age of 35. His prediction was unkind in the sense that Arensky's stylish and lyrical works rank with those of Liadov, Kalinnikov, and Ippolitov-Ivanov for melodic charm and orchestral color. But his prediction was accurate to the extent that there have been few performances or recordings of Arensky's music in the century since his death in 1906. Indeed, aside from this undated recording with Evgeny Svetlanov leading the Academic Symphony Orchestra, there has apparently been only one other recording of Arensky's symphonies in the past half century – Valery Polyansky's on Chandos – and none before that at all. For die-hard fans of Russian music, this state of affairs is a shame because as Svetlanov's performances demonstrate, Arensky's symphonies deserve to be heard.