While Franz Liszt and
I find little to admire in the music
of Anton Rubinstein, the late Steve
Richards, friend and impressionistic
painter, rated him as his very favourite
composer and would collapse into quiet
sobs of ecstasy over the Ocean Symphony.
I could never reconcile Steve’s strong
identification with Rubinstein’s peculiar
stuffy didacticism with the brilliant
splashes of colourful clouds which Steve
painted. Prokofiev’s mother thought
Rubinstein was a much better piano composer
than Tchaikovsky, but, then, some of
Tchaikovsky’s solo piano pieces are
not his best music.
This work is certainly
the best music by Rubinstein I’ve ever
heard. It is effective as a sound drama
with pleasant songs and many ingenious
orchestral/choral effects. The voices
are close to the microphone and the
drama in the ensembles is vivid and
arresting. Ivanov’s voice has a quality
reminiscent of Sergei Leiferkus and
he is the focus of the drama.
In this drama the beautiful
Tamara, protected by an Angel, is desired
by the Demon, but when she rebuffs him
he conjures up a storm to kill Prince
Goudal, her betrothed. When he approaches
her again she flees to a convent, but
he follows her and promises to give
up being bad if she will consent to
be his. The Angel grants Tamara death
rather than be tempted, and the bitter
Demon vows to be twice as bad from then
on.
The monophonic sound
has wide frequency and dynamic range
— not too different from what Western
companies were achieving in 1950 — and
has been lovingly restored with noise
removed. For intelligibility, the sound
has been brightened which makes for
some rawness, but, even though there
is some audible distortion on peaks,
the sound remains quite listenable.
Paul Shoemaker