When the Russian art historian and critic Vladimir Stasov declared in 1867 ‘how much poetry, feeling, talent, and intelligence are possessed by the small but already mighty handful of Russian musicians’, the five nationalist composers to whom he referred adopted the nickname with pride. Though each developed his own personal style, they remained committed to forging a truly Russian musical tradition, not least through pieces such as these songs. Russian bass Mikhail Svetlov is a winner of the Viotti International Competition and has been principal soloist of the legendary Bolshoy Theatre of Moscow for more than a decade.

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This opera, which had fallen into oblivion, was revived in 1973 in the Dutch city of Zaanstad (the Saardam of the libretto) and staged at Bergamo’s Teatro Sociale as part of the Donizetti Festival in a new critical edition made for the Donizetti Foundation by Alberto Sonzogni. In the plot, the Tsar Peter the Great works incognito as a carpenter at the shipyard of Sardaam to acquire technical knowledge to carry back home. On the podium, the knowledgeable Roberto Rizzi Brignoli leads the orchestra of the Donizetti Opera, assisted by the internationally renowned cinema director Davide Ferrario. In the cast, Andrea Concetti (a successful artist who has sung throughout the world) is joined by singers who are emerging in the belcanto repertoire, such as Giorgio Caoduro, Juan Francisco Gatell, Irina Dubrovskaya and Aya Wakizono.

ADAM Giselle • Pavel Klinichev, cond; Svetlana Lunkina ( Giselle ); Dmitry Gudanov ( Albrecht ); Maria Allash ( Myrtha ); Vitaly Biktimirov ( Hans ); Elena Bukanova ( Berthe ); Ekaterina Barykina ( Bathilde ); Alexey Loparevich ( Duke ); Vladislav Lantratov ( Wilfreed ); Chinara Alizade, Andrey Bolotin ( Peasants ); Bolshoi Ballet & O • BELAIR BAC074 (109: 00) Live: Moscow 01/2011


ADAM Giselle: highlights • Andrew Mogrelia, cond; Slovak RSO • NAXOS 8.572924 (61:07)


Giselle is one of the ballet characters that dancers relish, emblematic of the Romantic era, complete with mad scene yet requiring dancing of great purity for the second act. Svetlana Lunkina is one of the new crop of Bolshoi ballerinas equally at home in bravura roles at the same time as being a convincing Giselle or Sylphide. Dmitry Gudanov is a convincing hero, his youthful looks helping to define his character as an innocent, totally unaware of the chaos he has created. Maria Allash possesses the same romantic qualities as Lunkina, allied with a stern demeanor that makes her Myrtha a very steely character. Chinara Alizade and Andrey Bolotin dance the interpolated Peasant Pas de Deux with the requisite charm, while Vitaly Biktimirov’s lovelorn Hans (aka Hilarion) almost arouses our compassion. Pavel Klinichev and the Bolshoi Orchestra offer a straightforward reading. The credit “choreographic version by Yuri Grigorovich after choreography by Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot & Marius Petipa” is puzzling as this appears to be a standard version, other than a hastily choreographed court dance the first time the Duke and his followers arrive. Grigorovich’s only other contribution would appear to be some of the bizarre rhythmic accentuations that he favors.


The CD of orchestral highlights is well-enough performed by Andrew Mogrelia and the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, of particular interest for the music with hunting fanfares that are rarely heard at the start of act II before Myrtha’s entrance. But some of the tempi are unsuitable for the theater and may even jar listeners familiar with the work.


FANFARE: Joel Kasow

This disc offers you satisfying performances of satisfying music. How can you refuse?

This second instalment in the continuing cycle of Ries's piano concertos from Naxos is a disc for your wish-list.

Ries is more famous today for being Beethoven's pupil and biographer than for his own career in music. In his day he ranked with Hummel and, yes, even with Beethoven himself as one of Europe's greatest composer-pianists. Thanks to the efforts of Naxos and Allan Badley's Artaria Editions, we can now hear for ourselves what it was that so excited nineteenth century audiences.

All three works here show Ries to be a composer of originality, though one with a respect for his musical forebears. It would go too far to call him daring or revolutionary. Nonetheless, despite the backward glances at Mozart, his facility for contrasting grand orchestral statements with piano writing of a free, rhapsodic lyricism bridges the gap between Beethoven on the one hand and Chopin and Schumann on the other.

The Swedish National Air with Variations opens with a proud and darkly coloured orchestral flourish, which is immediately contrasted with a gently glittering statement from the piano. This pattern of contrasts is repeated throughout the 15 minutes of this piece, as Ries plies his skill at conjuring variations, first dazzling, then soulful. He casts the orchestra as chorus rather than as equal partner in dialogue, but he knows how to use its tone colours – listen to the lovely clarinet commentary about five minutes in, for example.

The Piano Concerto in C sharp minor is a delightful work, written largely on the road as Ries toured and then fled Russia in 1812. It is natural to want to draw comparisons with Beethoven's C minor concerto of 12 years earlier, but similarities are few and comparisons unhelpful. Apart from a few blustery tuttis, Ries uses the minor mode to spice harmonies and lend interest rather than to generate Beethovenian drama. The material is predominantly lyrical but virtuosic in the outer movements. The central slow movement lasts for less than five minutes, but is the heart of the concerto. Here Ries'sw gentle lyricism calls for a Chopinesque rubato and lightness of touch. His writing for orchestra, though, is better than Chopin's and full of interesting details and colourings.

The Introduction and Polonaise may have been composed 21 years after the other two pieces in this programme, but it demonstrates a remarkable consistency in Ries's idiom across the years. This piece is full of Mozartean turns of phrase, but with harmonic touches that point to Schumann. Again, there is some charming writing for the clarinets and flutes as they comment on the piano's discourse.

The Austrian pianist Christopher Hinterhuber plays with commitment and is a fine advocate for these works, just as able to command attention with flashes of fire as he is to lead the ear through the most delicate figurations. Grodd and the Gävle Symphony Orchestra support him well enough, though there is a little raggedness in the upper registers of the violins towards the close of the Introduction and Polonaise. The recorded sound is fine and the booklet notes by Allan Badley are interesting, though they hint at but do not explain the reconstruction of the score of the C sharp minor concerto.

All up, this disc offers you satisfying performances of satisfying music. How can you refuse?

Tim Perry, MusicWeb International

Robert Schumann composed the Op. 47 Piano Quartet in E flat major in his so-called ‘chamber music year’ of 1842, immediately after finishing the famous piano quintet in the same key. Despite the proximity in time and tonality, there are clear differences between the two works: the quintet tends more towards a concertante dialogue between the piano and string quartet while the quartet favours equality between the four parts – even if the cello has something of a leading role among the strings. Some ten years later, the young Johannes Brahms was entrusted with the task of making a piano four-hands arrangement of the quartet, and it is quite possible that this contact with Schumann’s chamber music for piano and strings opened his eyes to the potential of the genre. In any case, with its almost inexhaustible motivic abundance and captivating energy Brahms’s Piano Quintet in F minor, Op.34, is one of the most often performed works for these forces. Completed in 1864 it had actually started off as a string quintet which Brahms first reworked as a sonata for two pianos before arriving at the final scoring. Performing these two central works in 19th century chamber music is Yevgeny Sudbin and an international group of eminent string players consisting of violinists Hrachya Avanesyan and Boris Brovtsyn, violist Diemut Poppen and cellist Alexander Chaushian.

REVIEW:

There’s no lack of personalities on display here. Here we have a band of equals. The players are thrillingly daring in the Scherzo of the Schumann, taken at breakneck tempo with fizzing accents, but though you suspect that Sudbin is the ringleader here, there’s plenty of give and take within the group.

– Gramophone

Classical Music

When Heifetz chose Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy, reportedly his favorite concerto, for his legendary appearance on TV, he had already recorded it twice; the later recording, with Malcolm Sargent and the New Symphony Orchestra of London, has sometimes been recommended as representing him at his best. Although the Fantasy hasn’t received the attention that the First Concerto had garnered even in Bruch’s own lifetime (sometimes to his chagrin), its popularity seems to run ahead of the Second Concerto (which Heifetz also championed) and to outdistance by far the nearly orphaned Third, a chip of Spohr-like granite that remains the province of the few. Maxim Fedotov doesn’t challenge Heifetz’s proprietorship—or perhaps even Michael Rabin’s suave mastery, or even Kyung-Wha Chung’s passionate electricity; if his relaxed meandering in the opening movement and his weighty deliberation in the following Allegro don’t suggest fierce warlords (the Russian Philharmonic comes closer in the final movement, an Allegro guerriero), he plays with a rich, glowing tone that recalls Oistrakh’s, although perhaps not veiled with that master’s mystery, and his portamentos occasionally suggest an antique (if updated and sanitized) expressive manner well suited to this sentimental, though not maudlin, work. How did Pablo Sarasate, to whom Bruch dedicated it, play this concerto? He concocted his own confection from Scottish airs, so he must have had some familiarity with, and interest in, the folk idiom. The engineers haven’t shone the spotlight on Fedotov in the way Heifetz’s and Oistrakh’s did.

Bruch also dedicated his Serenade to Sarasate; and, though the Spaniard didn’t give its premiere, it bears the impress of his personality. If the Third Concerto seems a relative orphan, this work has remained almost unknown; but Salvatore Accardo included it in his collection of Bruch’s works for violin and orchestra with Kurt Masur and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (originally on Philips 9500 590 and re-released on CD as Philips 289 462 167-2). While Accardo’s reading explored the work’s nostalgic sensibility, Fedotov’s takes a more muscular approach to its tangy, concerto-like virtuosity—Bruch had, after all, intended this work as a concerto-like serenade (he repeatedly wrote movements and works that he expected would turn out to be his Fourth Concerto—without losing touch with its brooding sensitivity. His tempos seem relatively leisurely in the opening movement and upon its return at the Serenade’s end (in an effective valedictory gesture, Yablonsky and the orchestra insinuate the Serenade’s returning opening materials with poignant subtlety and close with a serenely hushed cadence), as well as in the episodic passages of the fast movements; but he struts briskly, too, as in the second movement’s march. Perhaps decisively, though, he doesn’t seem quite so comfortable in the long second movement as Accardo did, and he wanders without a strong sense of direction—though with richly textured symphonic support—in the sprawling third.

Those hoping to explore Bruch œuvre at first cautiously, then with more abandon, should find the Fantasy and the Serenade a well-ordered program. Recommended as a digitally recorded alternative to Accardo’s readings.

Robert Maxham, FANFARE

Classical Music

On two previous albums, Yevgeny Sudbin and Osmo Vänskä have released Beethoven’s three last piano concertos to critical acclaim. Distinctions include Editor’s Choice in Gramophone and top marks from the Italian magazine Musica and the German website Klassik-Heute.de, and performances have been described as ‘electrifying’ (classicfm.com), ‘absolutely stunning’ (Fanfare) and ‘a Beethoven experience you will not want to miss’ (ClassicsToday.com). For the final release in their cycle, Sudbin and Vänskä have travelled to Helsinki to team up with Tapiola Sinfonietta, one of the top Nordic ensembles, and well suited for these earlier and more classical of Beethoven’s concertos. Of the two, the one we now know as the Second was actually begun several years before Concerto No. 1, and indeed even before Beethoven left Bonn for Vienna. During the following decade, Beethoven returned to the score repeatedly and made substantial revisions – including composing a new final movement – and ultimately the C major concerto reached publication first. Both concertos were conceived long before Beethoven's involvement with the symphonic genre, and the influence of Mozart and Haydn is evident in the interaction between the orchestra and the soloist – but Beethoven's individual spirit is nevertheless unmistakeable.

'A disc without flaws, a true marvel' is how Jean-Jacques Kantorow's previous recording of music by Édouard Lalo was described in the Spanish magazine Scherzo. The disc in question included three works composed for the great violin virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate: the violin concerto, Fantaisie norvégienne and the perennial favourite Symphonie espagnole. In a review in Gramophone, the soloist was compared to his great predecessor: 'Kantorow, one of today's most individual players, has the measure of Lalo's Sarasate-inspired violin-writing - he's able to toss off the virtuoso passagework in a seemingly effortless manner and his distinctive tone lends a sensuous allure to Lalo's melodies.' On the present disc, Kantorow plays two other works intended for Sarasate, the brief Fantaisie-ballet on themes from Lalo's ballet Namouna, and the large-scale Concerto russe. The latter piece, in four movements, borrows themes from two wedding songs included by Rimsky-Korsakov in his collection 100 Russian Folk Songs. A typically expressive and virtuosic composition, it is also one of the first important French works to draw upon Russian music - many others were to follow. Two shorter violin works are included here, but the disc closes with another concerto, the Piano Concerto from 1888. It was the composer's final major work, and in it he seems to depart from the pattern of his violin concertos, with their prominent solo parts. Lalo rather chooses to integrate the piano into the orchestral texture, and although the writing is redolent of the great Romantic concertos, it offers few opportunities for the soloist to show off - a possible reason for the work's absence from modern concert programmes and its rarity on disc. Championing this solo part is Pierre-Alain Volondat, and as in the other works orchestral support is provided by the eminent Tapiola Sinfonietta, conducted by Kees Bakels.

In their exploration of the symphonic repertoire of the Romantic era, Thomas Dausgaard and his Swedish Chamber Orchestra have previously recorded Bruckner, Tchaikovsky and most recently Brahms, in performances described as ‘exhilarating’ (The Observer) and ‘stirring’ (ClassicsToday.com). As they take on the music by another archetypal nineteenth-century composer, Richard Wagner, they are joined by one of today’s foremost Wagner singers. Named ‘Singer of the Year’ by the magazine Opernwelt in 2012, Nina Stemme has been the Isolde of choice at Glyndebourne, Bayreuth and Covent Garden. She here performs the five Wesendonck Songs – of which two in particular, Im Treibhaus and Träume, were referred to by their composer as ‘studies’ for Tristan and Isolde. Wagner himself prepared a version for violin and orchestra of Träume, which the conductor Felix Mottl incorporated when, supervised by the composer, he made an orchestration of the set. These songs to texts by Mathilde Wesendonck, Wagner’s muse during the 1850s, are framed by two versions of the overture to The Flying Dutchman, the rarely heard 1841 original version and the composer’s final creation from 1860, with its new ending inspired by Tristan, composed three years earlier. Concerning his revisions, Wagner wrote to Mathilde: ‘Now that I have composed Isolde’s last transfiguration, I could at last find the right close for this Fliegender-Holländer overture’. Included is also the Siegfried Idyll, composed in 1870 as one of Wagner’s few purely orchestral works. It is known by this title because it was presented as a gift to Cosima Wagner, who had recently given birth to the couple’s son Siegfried, but also because it uses themes from the opera Siegfried, which was then nearing completion. Closing the disc is the stately prelude to another opera, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, in which Wagner with a spectacular use of counterpoint – ‘applied Bach’ was his own description – aspires to express the idea of a reconciliation between artistic freedom and respect for tradition.

Seen as the successor to Beethoven by many of his contemporaries, Johannes Brahms combined traditional form with an originality o fmusical language that has inspired generations of composers. His two string quintets are, like Mozart's, scored with two violas for richness of texture and harmonic depth. The positive mood of the First String Quintet reflects the sunny resort of Bad Ischl where Brahms composed during the spring of 1882, while his Second String Quintet combines symphonic breadth with nostalgic melancholy in what was originally intended to be his final chamber work. Formed in 1987, the New Zealand String Quartet has established a distinguished international reputation over the past three decades. The ensemble's discography includes all the quartets by Mendelssohn, Bartok and Berg, and this recording completes their three albums of Brahms chamber music for Naxos.

Between 2003 and 2015, Ronald Brautigam recorded all of Beethoven’s music for solo piano – a huge undertaking resulting in a grand total of 15 highly acclaimed albums. Choosing to perform the works on the fortepiano, Brautigam began with a sonata cycle which caused one reviewer to talk of a challenge to ‘the very notion of playing this music on modern instruments, a stylistic paradigm shift.’ In 2010, after nine albums of sonatas, he went on to record the composer’s variations, bagatelles and other piano pieces – a staggering array of works ranging from a Bagatelle lasting 11 seconds to the monumental Diabelli Variations, and from a charming Rondo in C major composed by a 13-year old Beethoven, to what is often referred to as the composer's ‘Last Musical Thought’, an Andante maestoso dated 1826. Brautigam’s sonata recordings were released in a box set in 2014, and they are now followed by this 6-album set of the remaining works for solo piano, in the original hybrid format, and with full documentation in the form of the original booklets. Composed over the course of more than 40 years, the music is performed on three different instruments, all by the master builder Paul McNulty, demonstrating the rapid development that the fortepiano underwent during Beethoven’s lifetime.

REVIEWS:

This is a wonderful set, in which Ronald Brautigam excels in his conclusion to his survey of the complete solo piano music of Beethoven. I appreciate that some people do not like the sound of the fortepiano, but the instruments chosen for this set and edition as a whole, show the breadth of sound that was available at the time, and some people will be surprised by just how full a sound it is. Brautigam’s choice of tempos is well-measured and thoughtful, and his playing is nuanced throughout, resulting in this set being one that I have found difficult to take off my CD player. The performances certainly mark Brautigam out as a leading interpreter of Beethoven’s music regardless of the style and type of piano used.

– MusicWeb International

Brautigam’s fortepiano survey is magnificent, comprising four full discs of variations (including Eroica and Diabelli), the complete bagatelles, rondos and other miscellaneous pieces. Disc 1 begins with a charming rendition of the Op 33 set followed by a tranche of pieces dating mainly from the 1790s; the late sets Opp 119 and 126 are delivered with a sense of simplicity that can only come from depth of knowledge.

– International Piano

This extensive release features all of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s opera recordings live from the Bolshoi Theater. Made between 1936 and 1963, these recordings showcase not only one of the finest venues in the world, but one of the world’s finest composers. Tchaikovsky wrote his first opera, The Voyevoda, in 1867. After a disastrous premiere, the self-critical composer burnt the entire manuscript of the work. Luckily, most of the score has been reconstructed from the individual parts. It is included in the first portion of this release for modern listeners to make up their own minds about the music. Luckily, his feelings about his first opera didn’t stop him from pursuing more within the genre. As a composer of opera, Tchaikovsky could seek inspiration in centuries of operatic tradition in Western Europe, but the history of the opera in Russia had only just begun a few years before he was born. While Tchaikovsky welcomed the ideas of Western Europe, he faced rivalry from “The Mighty Handful” of nationalist Russian composers. Despite a rocky first few operas, Tchaikovsky went on to find later success as he walked a middle-road between operatic tradition and Russian nationalism. While his operas never found the success that his ballets did, this release proves that they are the works of a brilliant mind.

Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Bruch Maxim Rysanov Maxim Rysanov Plays Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Bruch

Classical Music

Antonin Dvorak’s Symphonies Nos. 7 and 8 are presented here, masterfully performed by the Houston Symphony. Music Director Andres Orozco-Estrada wonderfully interprets these works, exploring a myriad of emotions from tragedy, to quiet reflection, to grandeur and triumph. This recording was made in Houston, TX at the Jess H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts in April of 2014 (Symphony No. 7) and March of 2015 (Symphony No. 8).

Classical Music

With this recording of a selection of Franz Liszt’s music for violin and piano, Ulf Wallin and Roland Pöntinen aim at expanding our understanding of the prolific composer whose style, especially later, evolved in a manner far ahead of its time. Liszt composed his first music for violin and piano as early as 1832, returning to this instrumental combination throughout his life. Some of the pieces are re-workings of earlier compositions. In the early Grand Duo concertant pure virtuosity and the joy of playing are to the fore, but in the late works Liszt takes us on a journey into his own innermost soul.

In a letter to a friend Chopin described Pleyel pianos as ‘the last word in perfection’. What he identified as their ‘slightly veiled sonority’ suited his style. One observer remembered the composer saying that if he was not feeling on top form, he preferred to play on an Erard, for its bright and ready-made tone. ‘But if I feel alert, ready to make my fingers work without fatigue, then I prefer a Pleyel… My fingers feel in more immediate contact with the hammers, which then translate precisely and faithfully the feeling I want to produce, the effect I want to obtain.’ The Chopin-era Pleyel was notable for its graded timbre, topped by the silvery, ethereal quality of its treble register. Chopin’s appreciation for the Pleyel sonority of pianos is written into the very fabric of his music. When he travelled to Majorca with George Sand in the winter of 1838, a Pleyel piano had to travel with them, and the composer continued to have a Pleyel grand delivered every summer, which remained until November. This was at some expense to the company, but then the relationship was mutually beneficial: while the composer was inspired by the Pleyel sound, the company did well from his patronage and his personal recommendations, and indeed Chopin and Camille Pleyel were firm friends for many years. For this mixed recital, Hubert Rutkowski plays a Pleyel instrument from 1847, during Camille’s stewardship of the firm. The most substantial works are the G minor Ballade and the B minor Scherzo, which makes so much of that glistening upper register. There is also the C sharp minor Fantaisie-Impromptu, the B flat minor Polonaise and a selection of mazurkas, nocturnes, etude and waltz. The pianist is a President of the Chopin Society in Hamburg, and has also played and recorded under the theme of Chopin’s pupils: he is among the most distinguished Chopin pianists of our day.

Classical Music

Donizetti: Anna Bolena

Wagner: Die Walküre, WWV 86b (Live)

Is this March 1958, Lisbon La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi the best on record? Having in your cast, at that time, the role of Alfredo Germont sung by the great and classy tenor Alfredo Kraus surely enhances a recording's prospects toward that nomination. With Maria Callas as Violetta and Mario Sereni as Giorgio Germont, and also including the complete Radio Announcement which is missing on all other releases of this performance, and in excellent sound due to direct master tape transfers, it surely ranks high.

It was Robert Schumann who praised the Anglo-French Georges Onslow, alongside Mendelssohn, as one of the successors to the chamber music legacy of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. His string quintets were intended for a market of cultivated amateurs, with parts for a second cello or bass. No. 10 in F minor, Op. 32 reflects Beethoven’s influence, its Sturm und Drang elements revealing a masterly balance between the stable and unpredictable. No. 22 in E flat major, lively and playful, offers an almost Schubertian songfulness. Of the first volume, Gramphone wrote: ‘these five players make a beguiling case for this music.’ The combination of string quartet with double bass has opened up a richness of tone and distinct soundscape that the Elan Quintet has dedicated to exploring, celebrating works by renowned composers such as Schubert, Dvorak and Cambini, working with contemporary artists in creating new works for quintet, and rediscovering neglected masterpieces by composers including Onslow and Bridge. The members of the Elan Quintet, Benjamin Scherer Quesada, Lelia Iancovici, Julia Chu-Ying Hu, Dmitri Tsirin, and Matthew Baker, formed the ensemble in Valencia in 2014 having worked with each other extensively in the opera orchestra of the Palau de les Arts as well as in masterclasses and in chamber music.

This project was produced exclusively for 180 gram audiophile vinyl release. SOUVENIR and has been referred to as "the most beautiful music ever composed for the string orchestra". Ensemble leaders Øyvind Gimse and Geir Inge Lotsberg decided early for Tchaikovsky's "Souvenir de Florence" and 2L opted for the "Serenade for Strings". The Trondheim Soloists are regarded as one of the top chamber orchestras in the world. Their DIVERTIMENTI and their FOLK STYLE were both nominated for a total of five American GRAMMY Awards in categories "Best Small Ensemble", "Best Engineered Album" and "Best Surround Sound Album".

Classical Music

At the beginning of the Fifties Philippe Entremont appeared on the international musical stage with the enthusiasm of critics and audience. He was born in Reims - France - im 1934 from a family of musicians, in 1952 he won the the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition Award; and this fact opened him a real international career,and, after having listened him the famous conductor Eugene Ormandy cast him for performing with the Philadelphia Orchestra one of most famous Orchestra in the world. Entremont began recording his first album when he was just twenty and were unforgettable performance specially his 1955 and 1959 Chopin recordings; performance that IDIS re-present in this CD after fifty years of inexplicable silence. It is enough consider the Ballades at the beginning of the CD or the Nocturne op 15 no 1 to realize what a wonderful performer he had been when he was just twenty. He had a wonderful and perfect virtuosity combined with a gift to tell through the music still unmached.

Classical Music

Sergey Taneyev was a distinguished pianist and influential educator, succeeding Tchaikovsky as professor at the Moscow Conservatory and counting Scriabin and Rachmaninov among his students. The Piano Trio, Op. 22 is a demonstration of Taneyev's technical skill, filled with subtle use of counterpoint, lyrical expressiveness and virtuoso fireworks. Alexander Borodin was a leading member of the "Mighty Handful", and his incomplete but brilliant Piano Trio was seen by Glinka as setting a precedent in teh genre for its deeply Russian character.