Concertgebouw Orkest Rimski Korsakov Scheherazade Krill

Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, telling sumptuous stories, and Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, graphically chilling, are two of the most popular works in the Russian repertoire. Programming them together, as Music Director of the Orchestra and Chorus dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Sir Antonio Pappano reminds us of the links between the two composers. At the same time he provides a rare opportunity to hear both of Mussorgsky’s versions of Night on Bald Mountain – one for orchestra and one for orchestra and vocal forces.

In 1936, the English composer and writer Constant Lambert described Igor Markevitch as ‘the leading figure of the Franco-Russian school’. As a composer he had been commissioned by Diaghilev and performed by the likes of Alfred Cortot and Roger Désormière, but his posthumous reputation largely rests on his prowess as a conductor, a profession he took up in the 1930s after study with Pierre Monteux.

Your attention is invited to the album Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherazade performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, Andre Previn, which was recorded in 1968.

This is a classic recording of these two works, led with grand authority by Fritz Reiner.

“Setting Rostropovich, an impetuously Slavonic musician if ever there was one, in front of such an unmistakably French orchestra as this produces an intriguing and most attractive blend of Russian fire and colour with Gallic elegance and sentiment,” wrote Gramophone. The relationship between the great cellist-conductor and the Orchestre de Paris achieves glorious expression in this programme of Russian orchestral showpieces.