BORODIN: Symphonies Nos. 1, 2 and 3

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Borodin, A.: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2

The present album is a re-release of Bavarian broadcast recordings of 1953-56 featuring legendary bass-baritone George London at the height of his career. Upon its initial release, the album received glowing reviews from critics and fans, and this now can be enjoyed by a new generation of listeners. “(The) collection is vintage London all the way“ (American Record Guide) “The extracts from Aida and Die Walküre with Astrid Varnay are electrifying“ (BBC Music Magazine) “This is a worthy representation of a singer whose career was ended too soon.“ (International Record Review)

REVIEWS:

The excerpts on the present disc are uniformly excellent, and the recorded sound is surprisingly good. … London is a sensitive and expressive Dr. Miracle, and with excellent assistance from Teresa Stich-Randall and Maria von Ilosvay. With Russian speaking parentage, London had a special leaning towards Russian operas…

That London was a great Wotan is very obvious, even more so in the concluding farewell, where his sensitiveness and beauty of tone is striking. One rarely hears such legato singing in Wagner.

London sings Prince Igor’s aria with great dignity and feeling but it is the three final items with Varnay that form the high point of this album, in that they contain both the greatest music and the finest partner.

The playing of the BRSO is fine throughout and all three conductors ensure idiomatic execution.

-- MusicWeb International

London’s voice was massive, focused and dark, with an exciting and secure top. In these recordings he never blusters, and he sings with verbal acuity, noble tone and dramatic verve…The remastered sound is excellent.

-- Opera Now

It’s good to see a dedicated London CD appear on Orfeo, which concludes with the closing sections of Die Walküre, where the great American bass-baritone is heard in duet with Varnay under the direction of Varnay’s husband, Hermann Weigert, who is especially sensitive with accompanying lower string lines near the start of Wotan’s Farewell. London’s deep rolling voice…makes a strong impression.

-- Gramophone

The paths of cellist Nargiza Yusupova and pianist Polina Spirina crossed for the first time in 2016, but not, as one might expect, in the corridors of music academies – curiously enough, in a children's playground. Since then, this Munich duo has attracted attention with its brilliant and sensitive, transparent sound. They also create unique and intimate moments with their charming storytelling and poignant anecdotes from their lives. The listeners and spectators are glued to their lips, their ears follow the passionate and sensual playing of this chamber music fusion. It is the very special closeness to the selected audience, personal and approachable. Nargiza Yusupova & Polina Spirina combine their music with a direct mouthpiece to the audience. The press agrees that "the harmony of their virtuoso interplay" makes every concert an "experience of dynamic contrasts and floating sounds". They are the first and so far the only chamber music duo of its kind to bring to life rare or never before performed masterpieces such as those also part of this CD by Camillo Schumann and Alexander Borodin. Thanks to their fine chamber music artistry, outstanding commitment and unique programme selection, Duo Rubikon received funding from the Deutscher Musikrat in 2021 as part of the NEUSTART KULTUR programme "Preserving and Strengthening the Infrastructure for Culture in Germany", which brought this CD to life.

The familiar in a new guise – Tatjana Masurenko and the Yaruss Quartet are therefore in good company when they clothe the music of the Russian Romantics in novel acoustic garments. Using viola, soprano domra and alto domra, accordion and double bass, they play 19th century works in their own arrangements, using gut strings for all of their instruments, the domras sounding somewhat like Italian mandolins. In this guise, compositions by Rimsky-Korsakov, Musorgsky, Borodin and Glazunov seem lighter, more open and agile, their music expressing a fresh elegance with different colours, taking on a completely new character.

Hidden behind the late 19th century’s great symphonies, sumptuous ballets, and concertos with moving climaxes is something much more thoughtful and contemplative. This secret landscape comes courtesy of a few precious pieces for string orchestra by three Russian composers, all active at approximately the same time.

The extremely simple theme in 3/4, from Glazunov’s Theme and Variations in G Minor, Op. 97, has the feel of a solemn, ancient dance, simultaneously nostalgic and sombre. In another example of Glazunov’s crystal-clear yet expressive writing, the string orchestra provides the backdrop and conversation partner for a solo instrument that was a rarity in concertos at the time: the saxophone. Overall, despite the explosive counterpoint in the work’s final movement, it is a dreamy composition, never overly dramatic, and subdued and melancholy in places: almost elegiac, in other words.

The two elegies Tchaikovsky composed for string orchestra are highly refined works that reveal another side to the famous composer. In the same period that Tchaikovsky was writing his elegies, between 1880 and 1885, the composer and chemist Alexander Borodin was drafting his second Quartet. The third movement, a Nocturne, is one of Borodin’s finest works. It was therefore not only written at the same time as Tchaikovsky’s elegies, but also shares their gracefulness.

REVIEW:

Sieva Borzak (b. 1997) serves as the Conductor-in-Residence of the Roma Tre Orchestra, a collegiate ensemble that, when founded in 2005, became the first of its kind in central Italy.

The young musicians play with an artistic maturity and sensitivity well beyond their age; and the entire program bathes the listener in the timeless and contemplative romantic soundscape of the pre-Soviet school. Even so, this remains a student ensemble; and moments of stunning beauty are sometimes followed by shaky intonation and patchy teamwork. Taddei has all the tools for a solo career, executing the Glazounov concerto with splendid poise, expressive phrasing, and superb technique; but his free-blowing set-up always seems on the edge of spreading, even if his control is very good. Nevertheless, this is a fascinating preview of what the next generation of Italian talent has to offer.

-- American Record Guide

This disc offers about an hour's worth of choice bits from Borodin's Prince Igor. On one hand, we find the usual selections, including the ever-popular Polovtsian Dances, along with the Overture and Polovtsian March, familiar from various recordings (of which Tjeknavorian on RCA is among the best). But there also are a few numbers that will be unknown to listeners not experienced with the complete work, such as the blustery "I don't like boredom", sung with cocky swagger by bass Taras Shtonda.


The real catch here is the mezzo-soprano aria "Daylight is Fading", which contains one of Borodin's more bewitchingly beautiful melodies sung with heartfelt passion (and what sounds like authentic Arabian vocal styling) by Angelina Shvachka. Tenor Dmytro Popov sounds wonderfully ardent in the love song "Slowly the day was fading", while the poignant "There is neither sleep nor rest" makes fine use of Mykola Koval's rich, burnished baritone.


The Kiev Chamber Choir women make sweetly seductive captive maidens in the favorite Polovtsian Dance No. 2, just as the Polovtsian men sound suitably threatening proclaiming the glory of Khan. Theodore Kuchar leads an alternately gritty and graceful rendition with excellent playing from the Ukraine National Radio Symphony. The somewhat dry recording imparts a slightly hard-edged quality to the voices but otherwise projects substantial depth and dynamic range.
--Victor Carr Jr, ClassicsToday.com

If you're looking for a stellar disc containing all three Borodin symphonies in top-notch sound (the Third left incomplete, its two movements orchestrated by Glazunov), then look no further. Gerard Schwarz and his players seem to have developed a real affinity for Russian music, as their previous Rimsky-Korsakov disc suggests. The First Symphony sounds unusually cogent and masterly in their hands. Listen to the bite of the lower brass in the outer movements, and hear the plaintive songfulness of the woodwinds in the Andante. It's a true Russian sound.

The same idiomatic characteristics enhance the Second Symphony's gutsy opening string theme, while the finale simply explodes with color and energy. Borodin's Second is one of those works that everyone takes for granted, but its compact 25 minutes or so comprises one of the very best Russian symphonies of any period. It has enjoyed many fine performances, but this one is every bit as good as the best of them, and as already noted, the sonics are splendid. Don't hesitate for a minute.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Together with familiar music from Prince Igor, this album features the world premiere recording of the unusual Requiem, (which is based on “Chopsticks”), and Glazunov’s orchestration of the charming Petite Suite. Australian conductor Geoffrey Simon is resident in London and has appeared there with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players and English Chamber Orchestra. The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a classical music record producer for EMI. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Richard Strauss, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Arturo Toscanini; of the Philharmonia’s younger conductors, the most important to its development was Herbert von Karajan, who though never formally chief conductor was closely associated with the orchestra in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Philharmonia became widely regarded as the finest of London’s five symphony orchestras in its first two decades.

Alexander Borodin's Second String Quartet has vastly superceded the First in popularity. Musicologists tend to bemoan this fact, citing the earlier work's greater compositional ingenuity. Yet most listeners are understandably drawn to Quartet No. 2's irresistible tunefulness (two of its melodies were used as songs in the Broadway musical Kismet). The St. Petersburg Quartet emphasizes the intellectual rigor of No. 1, making a connection between it and Beethoven's late quartets. The playing, with its smoothness and clean intensity, lends an especially bleak cast to the rhapsodic Andante con moto, sounding here like a precursor to the quartets of Shostakovich.

This ensemble takes a more lyrical approach for No. 2, which is full of feeling yet maintains a strong sense of line (the first movement's argument is seamlessly realized here). Both performances are quite satisfying and are recorded in wonderfully clear, detailed, dynamically realistic sound by Dorian. Fine as these performances are, the Borodin Quartet on EMI displays even greater imagination throughout both performances (especially in the finale of No. 2), and a more deeply felt passion (No. 1's first movement and No. 2's Notturno). However, the cavernous Melodiya recording tends to blur some detail and adds an element of gigantism to the readings. So, it looks like the Dorian is the more generally recommendable version. It's quite enjoyable, and if you don't know these pieces, you've got quite a treat in store.

--Victor Carr Jr., ClassicsToday.com

This makes a most recommendable compilation, with Andrew Davis’s bluff and bouncy readings of the three symphonies and the Prince Igor items well supplemented by two favourite extra items. The original LPs, I remember, made the Toronto performances seem a little dull, but with the extra brightness of the CD transfer their amiable qualities are clearly conveyed. There is no neurasthenia in Davis’s view of Borodin here, consistently strong, purposeful and well-sprung, with the warmly lyrical folk flavour of the themes regularly brought out. The recording may lack a genuine pianissimo, but that matches the rugged quality of the performances, which yield some fine playing, notably from the wind and brass principals. Davis opts for unexaggerated speeds in the symphonies, never letting the music either drag in slow movements or be raced off its feet in the fast ones. No. 2 may have received more refined readings, but this is as winning as any.

-- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone [10/1996]

Borodin: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2