Repertoire: Rimsky-Korsakov's Fantastical Opera Suites
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ส.ค. 2021
- What can we say about a concert life that doesn't seem to have room anymore for these colorful, magical, tuneful overtures and suites? Their neglect is simply impossible to comprehend. There is in fact a huge amount of orchestral music by Rimsky-Korsakov beyond the usual "big three:" Sheherazade, Russian Easter Overture, and Capriccio Espagnol. Indeed, much of his greatest music comes from the operas, and you owe it to yourself to hear it.
Musical Examples courtesy of Naxos and Capriccio Records - เพลง
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I absolutely love the Christmas Eve Suite! The Polonase is to die for!!!It sounds like The Procession of the Nobles
Oh how I’m enjoying this! Thank you David Hurwitz!
The Coq d’or Suite really can’t cut a break! I believe believe that was the piece the Boston Symphony was about to perform, and got nixed when the musicians were frantically handed the parts for the Eroica funeral march instead, minutes after news of the Kennedy assassination came over the wire.
I have the Rotterdam collection mentioned which as said is great - and yes it's The Tale of Tsar Saltan with the fabulous sea music in Tsarina in a Barrel at Sea (what a marvelous piece of orchestral tone painting). Thanks as well for playing The Bum of the Flightal Bee, as my music teacher use to call it!
This is one of those videos where I can say, “I learned many new things today” 👍
Glad to hear it!
When I was writing my textbooks on orchestration for wind band, I kept going back to Mlada (specifically Triglav) for examples. RImsky-Korsakov was doing things with the orchestra that no other composer had done before or since. It may be my favorite work of his.
Mlada is criminally underrated and under-performed.
Thank you for opening our eyes and ears to more music that we should search out.
Thanks for playing excerpts from your chosen CD s ! It makes your presentations more interesting!!!
Now I can’t wait for the Rimsky opera talk! Especially for the Snow Maiden~
Thank you. I am a bit of a Rimsky - korsakov (or as I saw one wag dub it, 'Ripshercortetsoff') fan (despite being a B-r-u-c--k--n-e--r enthusiast, too). I have been a collector of the opera suites. It reminds me of your talk on Janacek. He didn't write too much orchestral music but with the opera suites, it pretty much doubles it.
David
Goregous music! I fondly remember a fabulous production of the Tale of Tsar Saltan at the Komische Oper in Berlin in the early 1990s - the run was sold out each night and got extended for a few extra nights, delighting lots of kids and adults alike.
Thanks - I had no idea there was so much Rimsky-Korsakov I had not heard.
Thanks Dave for this and all your videos. I bought the Jarvi and it’s like a luxurious long bath
Great stuff. Your guidance through the repertoire is invaluable and has reinvigorated my love of music.
Thank you. Glad to be of help. Enjoy!
For those who may feel like they've heard The Flight of the Bumblebee too many times, it will make a world of difference to hear it within the context of the opera Tsar Saltan. So wonderful.
Finally. This is such criminally underrated music. I've compared about every recording of the Coq d'or suite ever made, and found Maazel/Cleveland (Decca) to be the best. The first movement is quite slow but very atmospheric, and the finale is simply the most exciting on disc. The quality of the orchestra and the recording goes without saying. I've always found that Markevitch disc a bit pale-sounding, lacking in body.
Maazel is great, but unavailable outside the (also unavailable?) big box at present. I think the sonics on Markevitch are pretty terrific.
I got the box because I love The Cleveland Orchestra
Re the recording by Markevitch: that is my experience as well. His recording (on LP) was my 'imprinting' on this composer, and I have always liked it, but not for the sound. Alas, on CD it is better audible how awful the sound actually is.
Wonderful discussion. I have been collecting the operas for a long time and they are a source of inexhaustible riches.
I have followed your advice and got down the Järvi Chandos double CD and put on the Mlada Suite. I had forgotten what marvellous music it is, especially the procession of the nobles, every bit as good as say the triumphal march from Aida. I have ordered three of the Naxos CDs to explore the pieces I haven't got. It's a shame there is no decent biography of RK in English, by all accounts he was a fine man, he was one of the few 19C Russians who was philo Semitic, he had the reverse Topol problem in that one his daughter's suitors, Maximilian Steinberg was Jewish, RK approved of the marriage and welcomed him into the family.
I hope you do a review of all the recordings of Glasonov ,The Seasons ?
Great presentation of wonderful stuff, Dave. I was so impressed by the Coq d'or suite that in the 90s I would take my copy around to stereo stores to test out amplifiers and speakers. That and solo organ music.
I grew up on R-K’s fairy tale operas. Most of them were sung in very cute cartoons WHOLE! And many of us, kids, watched them. Love your cute pronunciation of Russian words, such asSnegurochka! The mount Triglav is real, located in Alpine region of Slovenia. Incredibly beautiful and tough.
It’s worth to mention: Rimsky- Korsakov put a lot of marine music in his compositions. Being a Navy officer, he loved sea and his music reflects it!
Thank you for the fantastic recommandations. Speaking of Zinman cannot forget his mentor Monteux, my ear-opener on the wonders of Golden Cockerel Suite with French National Radio from a live concert published by Montaigne, Music and Arts etc, the latter still available as a download I think. The souvenir of this opera performed in Düsseldorf a few years back comes back to my mind. Was seated by the orchestra had no fatigue. So wonderful. Not Beethoven in the bathroom, the opposite (Axel Kober leading), and found the singers exquisite. Makes you feel lucky. Merci
Just discovered your channel David, consuming it rapidly and enjoying it immensely.
Welcome, and thank you!
Fantastic video chat. One of my favorite composers. Don't you think Rimsky should have added some Tambourine thumb rolls at the same time the woodwinds are trilling!! What fun to demonstrate those!!
As someone who has never heard, bothered nor cared for this composer - this was just the drug I needed to get me hooked, and to celebrate I am going to create a mega-super score video of his complete Opera Suites, so I can study his works on a technical level as a composer myself, whilst also appreciating the beauty and genius of it all.
Thank you for listening.
I had the good fortune years ago to play Kitezh in the pit when Sarah Caldwell produced it with the Opera Company of Boston. She spared no expense when it came to sets and costumes - which unfortunately was the cause of the company's demise. I was completely bowled over by the music - so well crafted and orchestrated! Too bad it's rarely staged.
Years ago, managed to hear a 4-movt. Suite from "Kitezh" in the Seoul Arts Center (SAC), with Alexander Anissimov conducting the visiting Busan Philharmonic Orchestra as part of the SAC's annual orchestra festival (in April-? Fallible memory on my part^^). Do remember, however, that young noisy audience members made the maestro visibly perturbed, and before the music even began, he had to sternly direct one foolish young lady in the choir loft to get off the lap of her female friend and properly sit in a chair.~ Frankly, disrespectful Korean audiences often did not deserve the high quality of the music performances to which they were exposed...
I have the BIS set, the Zinman set and the Ansermet set. That should be enough, I would think. Great music! I've always loved Ormandy's recording of "The Procession of the Nobles".
There is (if you can still find it - or was) a very fine set with the opera suites on the label Kontrapunkt, 3 discs with the Odense Symphonic Orchestra conducted by Edward Serov. Absolutely wonderful played and very good recorded. Really worth exploring.
I have it and it is very good, but really, what is the point hunting around when it's not better than the versions recommended already and they are much easier to find (and less expensive)?
This music is always great fun! The Anserment (London Decca) is the one I have.
Thanks , so agree with you .. I've loved RK's music since almost my first introduction to orchestral music. Growing up in Scotland, I got Jarvi/SNO set when it came out .. still my favourite.. but why on earth is this music so rarely performed live? I just don't understand...
Gerard Schwarz, around 3 or 4 years ago, also recorded the First and Third Symphonies with a Berlin orchestra (can't remember which one, or if it's a festival orchestra). Such good discoveries on this video. Rimsky-Korsakov is probably one of the best orchestral masters - he knew which instrument perfectly matched the melodies he wrote.
Love the Schwarz/Seattle recordings, not only of the music of Rimsky-Korsakov (e.g., also compositions by R. Strauss and Stravinsky among others). Great performances with top sound quality. IIRC, these recordings were made by Delos in the early days of digital recording, when only Telarc and Delos had the key to great sound quality, at least IMHO.
I heeded your Markevitch recommendation and downloaded a copy. I figured I’d start with Borodin’s In the Steppes of Central Asia since it is late and people are sleeping. I have always found its dynamic contrasts to be relatively minor:
Suffice to say, I was not expecting the huge dynamic change when the whole orchestra kicks in a little after 3 minutes. This is nothing like Bernstein’s Age of Gold. I may have lost my late night listening privileges. 😊
These great Suites were mainstays of my radio programming. It seems as if orchestral programming has gotten too self-consciously serious to encompass such fare, and that's too bad. Speaking of Russian Suites, I've lately been enjoying the Dorati set of Tchaikovsky's Suites for Orchestra, which fit into the same "not serious enough for prime time" boat. Any chance of a video on them? Thanks!
Thinking about it!
This music deserves much more attention than it typically receives (in concert at least); thanks for renewing our appreciation.I plan to hear the Jarvi/SNO performances very soon. As you say, Bakels is very fine.
I have enjoyed one volume of a series of recordings from the mid 1990's, by Edward Serov and the Odense SO on Kontrapunkt., of suites from the Golden Cockerel, the Maid from Pskov, and Pan Voyevoda. I recall there were three volumes in this series(still available on Amazon).
I would be interested in your take on these Serov performances. They are excellently played and recorded.
Serov has already been discussed. Please check comments before repeating what has already been mentioned.
My apologies - I need to look before I write. BTW the Serov CD’s are currently $30-$40 on Amazon.
@@barrygray8903 There you go. And not worth it.
Such a thoroughly enjoyable presentation - thank you so much. I see the Markevitch set on DG that you highly recommend, but I'm wondering if anyone has any knowledge of the Igor Markevitch box set that is around $21 on Amazon that also has the Rimsky-Korsakov works and a lot more Russian works called "Milestones of a Conductor Legend"? There isn't much detail about it, so I don't know if the R-K recordings are the same, mono or stereo, etc. The new box sets on Eloquence contain much more, but I thought I saw them priced at $175 each. I'd like to find the R-K and Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky and Borodin and Liadov recordings without having to spend so much.
Tjeknarvorian/Amenian PO did a beautiful disc of the Golden Cockeral, Christmas Eve, Tsar Sultan on ASV. Not sure if this has been re-issued, but can be found online streaming.
Yes,I agree wholeheartedly. Especially the Polonaise from the Christmas Eve Suite which was played at a nice slower stately tempo !
Dave, you are truly a national treasure. Crack me up every video. Perhaps you should do a standup routine -- ever tried it?
Maybe one day!
Thank you for this informative review. I'm sure your many viewers learned a lot about this relatively obscure repertoire which should be better known. Many of these fine pieces were unknown to me. However, the ones recorded by Ansermet I have enjoyed for many years, having picked up the Decca twofer while it was available. It may still be. I should also alert you and your commentators to the availability of the "Russian" volume in Decca's three-volume, multi-disc Ansermet series, which includes an ambitious Stravinsky survey, among many other Russian delights. That Decca series was released over a decade ago, and it technically withdrawn, but the volumes, though pricey, are still available on Amazon. Which brings me to a suggestion: A presentation on Ansermet's legacy is long overdue. He was a brilliant conductor with a vast repertoire, which went well beyond the usual French suspects to include works by Bach, Haydn, Beethoven and Brahms cycles, even Sibelius. Ansermet's German Requiem is one the very finest of its vintage--clear-headed, incisive, swift-paced, avoiding the usual germanic heaviness. I purchesed the three Ansermet boxes when they were first released, and have never regretted it. To be sure, the Suisse Romande was not, at that time, the world's greatest ensemble, but they responded with commitment, dedication, and vivid orchestral color under Ansermet's direction. Perhaps Decca/Universal will come out with a new Ansermet edition. But for now I encourage your audience to explore what's currently available (and affordable).
A great deal of this stuff was already released on Australian Eloquence (as was the case with Rimsky), and to the extent that those titles remain available they might be a better way to go than trying to find those megaboxes at crazy prices. I share your hope that a single, sensible, remastered edition should show up at some point, but I'm not holding my breath. I may go through the boxes just to point out the items that viewers should be on the lookout for.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Good idea, Dave. It's interesting that Ansermet was such a favorite of Decca--and of many listeners--back in the day, but despite his importance, not only on the podium, but in the history of 20th Century music, he is largely forgotten today. And that brings me to an important question: Why do certain performers (let's stay with conductors for the present) get favored in the annals of history while others, of equal or greater merit, are gradually ignored? I was recently revisiting Andre Cluytens' (he of the unpronounceable name) early stereo Beethoven cycle with the BPO. I hadn't heard it for many years, and I found it very refreshing, beautifully played, quite exciting. Except for his rather dour Ninth, I kept thinking, "This is overall BETTER than Karajan with the same orchestra." Yet Herbie's DG cycles continue to be lionized, while poor Cluytens barely gets a nod (even though it was reissued recently in Warner's Cluytens box) Staying with Beethoven cycles, what about Krips (much favored by college students of my vitage), or Leibowitz? Two conductors we rarely hear about these days (granted, less important than Herbie but that's not my point). So here's what I'm driving at: a suggestion for you to do a spot, or even a series, on "conductors/performers whose star has faded, but who deserve to be revived / ossia: who we ignore at our peril." At least two dozen names come timind right off the bat--though opinions will differ, of course. How about it? Maybe you could begin the "series" with Markevitch?
@@davidaiken1061 Well, I have two answers for you: 1. Intertia. 2. We ignore no one at our peril. There's too much great stuff out there, and much as we want to pretend otherwise, performers don't matter in the grand scheme of things when everyone plays the same stuff. The Beatles mattered. They were sui generis. Josef Krips does not, much as you may love individual performances. We lose nothing by ignoring him. Perhaps we differ in this, because that is what I truly believe. I believe very much in neglected composers and works, but artists? Not so much.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Basically, I agree with you. If it comes to rehabilitating "obscure" artists vs. rehabilitating obscure composers that we "ignore at our peril," then of course it's the latter. I am reminded of all the ignored composers and masterpieces that have been unearthed and recorded since the dawn of the LP. And remember my listening proclivities were shaped by the "Baroque revival" of the early LP and early stereo eras. Who heard much Monteverdi, Biber or Telemann before that? Indeed most of the BWV catalog was unknown territory for listeners until the recording industry took the risk of creating an audience, and a market for Baroque esoterica. So I am definitely in favor of exposing your viewers to underappreciated or even unknown composers of merit, first and foremost. P.S.: Krips is hardly a favorite conductor of mine, but his name came to mind because he didn't merit a mention in your receint Beethoven cycle overview--and I understand why. Thanks for your responses, as always.
If you want to see a live performance of The Golden Cockerel, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony has one on you-tube. I thought that the fastest Flight of the Bumblebee had to be Ruth Laredo doing the piano version on her complete Rachmaninoff piano works on Sony, but one that's even faster is JoAnn Castle (the pianist of the Lawrence Welk show) doing the Jack Fina version on accordian. You can get that performance on iTunes.
24:10 A foreshadowing of the Allegro from Shostakovich's 10th?
Dave’s rendition of the “Dance of the Tumblers” is truly the best thing since sliced bread and Dave’s rendition of the Gounod “Credo”
Right you are about all these pieces! Be assured that some of us out in the orchestral sticks of Saratoga CA have gotten religion. In recent years we've made it through Serbian, piano concerto, Christmas Eve, Pan Voyevoda, and, just before viral shutdown, Kitezh. Very good success with all--almost as good as Massenet's Scenes Feriee, fluff though it be. Most of this music is challenging for community orchestras but not so difficult as to be frustrating (Tryglav probably excepted).
And your words about RK's influence on Stravinsky are demonstrably true. Everybody thinks the harmonics glissando in the cellos near the beginning of Firebird was original with Igor. Nope. It’s in Christmas Eve.
Rimsky Korsakov the opera composer reminds me of Smetana the opera composer. In fact are you going to talk about the upcoming Smetana opera box on Supraphon when it releases?
That's the plan.
Would you mind doing an entire performance of all the suites with tambourine? It might sell a million.
Infinite thanks for this fantastic overview. Just in case, 'Kitizh' is the Russian shortened name for 'The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya' . To polish your Russian a bit, in 'Snegúrochka' the accent falls on 'U' ;)
Not in my village. We are Russian.
Great music indeed and wouldn't Night on Mt. Triglav make a wonderful addition to the Halloween canon? (Scoring for pan flutes makes performances difficult.) Unfortunately, as wonderful as this music is, it's not kid's stuff and beyond many amateur/community orchestras.
I went through a Rimsky phase a few years ago, picking the Jarvi and Ansermet sets around the same time, and the 5 disc Svetlanov set a little later. Svet is good once in a while if you want that echt Russianness, but Jarvi really is the champ. The only real criticism I could make is that the CDs are so stuffed that it's hard to take in. Might have helped the music if they'd kept it on 3 discs... I don't think you have addressed Rimsky's symphonies yet? I thought Kitaienko was pretty good, but prefer Jarvi in the 3rd. Svet was ultimately too thick and heavy, and I have not been sufficiently enthused by the pieces to invest in Bakels' set.
Is it me or does the Dance of the Tumblers have a slight resemblance with Tchaikovsky's 4th movement from his Symphony No. 2?
I am a great fan of your vlog and love classical music very much. I am still collecting CDs and black discs and so your guidance and views to the recordings of various categories of the classical music are so helpful and interesting.
. Though my ability to listen to all what you say in English is not perfect ,
my love and commitment to the music helps a lot much more than any other things I am not interested. Of course it would be so helpful if you can add the subtitle to your original English. Anyway Bravo to your video from a fan in Japan.
Thank you very much. I'm sorry about subtitles!
Suite from "Kitezh" is great, great stuff. The third movement somehow anticipates Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances. But what an inpractical orchestration: the suite, arranged by Steinberg, demands three domra players (which is analogue of mandoline). No wonder it gets played like one time in 100 years. What conductor would bother to find three players of a rare instrument to perform a 25 minute long piece?
You just fake it with mandolins or something similar.
@@DavesClassicalGuide well, yep, it's a possible soution. But it's still three extra players outside of the standard orchestra. I guess in 1900-ies in Russia, they just had too many of domra players.
@@aatim2308 Sure. Everyone had one. But honestly, it's no more of an issue than the Roman trumpets in the The Pines of Rome, or the "Posthorn" in Mahler's Third. You use whatever sounds similar at the same pitch level.
Loved your presentation. I also share your mystification as to why the majors don't play these suites. I also don't know why the operas themselves aren't done more. Yeah, dramatic weakness, but that doesn't apply to the Tsar's Bride or Snow Maiden.
You note that so many of his operas are fairy tales and that he was too rational to believe in such things. I would add that this is the case with a lot of 19th-century Russian operas. It may have to do with the problems of getting libretti past the censors. You really couldn't write openly about contemporary issues and there may even have been a ban on portraying the current Tsar on stage. That may also be one reason why so many Russian operas are set in the distant past. Certainly the only operas from that era even close to contemporary times I can think of are Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame and Yevgeny Onegin.