BARGAIN OF THE MONTH
Reinhold GLIERE (1875-1956)
The Glière Orchestral Collection
CD 1
Symphony No. 3 in B minor, Op. 42 Ilya Muromets (1911) [78:08]
CD 2
Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Op. 25 (1907) [45:54]
The Zaporozhy Cossacks, Op. 64 (1921) [18:06]
CD 3
Symphony No. 1 in E flat, Op. 8 (1900) [34:18]
Suite from The Red Poppy, Op. 70 (1927) [26:14]
CD 4
Suite from The Bronze Horseman (1949) [46:14]
Horn Concerto, Op. 91 (1950) [23:55]
CD 5
Overture: Gyul’sara (1936) [16:58]
Concert Waltz, Op. 90 [5:59]
Overture: Shakh-Senem (1925) [15:57]
Ballad, Op. 4, arr. Derzhanovsky [5:43]
Overture on Slavonic Themes [9:42]
Heroic March for the Buryiat-Mongolian ASSR, Op. 71 (1936) [11:12]
Overture: Holiday at Ferghana, Op. 75 (1940) [9:05]
Peter Dixon (cello) Richard Watkins (horn) BBC Philharmonic/Sir Edward Downes,
Vassily Sinaisky (CD 5)
rec. Manchester 1991-96.
Full track-list at end of review
CHANDOS CHAN106795X [5 CDs: 78:08 + 64:09 + 60:40 + 70:16 + 75:30]
Gliere's reputation rests on some ballet music - principally The Red Poppy
- and the epic Ilya Mouramets Symphony (No. 3). The latter has been
recorded by a range of distinguished conductors. Ormandy and Stokowski tackled
it in cut versions. Unicorn let Harold Farberman loose on it in a very full
and languorous early hi-fi digital version back in the very late 1970s. It
has been reissued on Regis.
There have also been recordings by Leon
Botstein, Nathan Rachlin, Donald Johanos, Yoav Talmi and Herman Scherchen.
Gliere was no slouch when it came to producing music and while listening to
these five discs you can, at times, catch a sense of the 'conveyor belt' the
predominant impression is of great craft and a truly engaging character.
Mouramets has some of the fragrance of early orchestral
Scriabin say, the six movement First Symphony. Mix in an opulent dash of Khachaturian
and you have 90% of the aural picture. The brass benches – crowded benches
– take command with an slowly epic Scriabinesque rearing up. The third movement
has its common mien with The Firebird with a fantastic brooding iridescence.
The next is not short on Rimskian brilliance and dance redolent of Antar
with a splash of Borodin and a glowing broad melody. The finale is something
of an ice storm yet more unbuttoned, lolloping and uncorseted. It is ultimately
looser and within this looseness links to themes in first two movements. This
is an extravagant and ultimately garrulous symphony which Downes indulges
to the full. If you were being uncharitable you might think of a sort of extended
Russian Easter Festival but you are soon brought up short by so many
superbly crafted coups including at one point a swooning ecstasy of birdsong.
The Second Symphony is accommodated on disc 2. It launches with bravado
deploying a bold horn-fronted gallop. It’s striking stuff but with a tendency
to hold on to ideas for slightly too long and a slack grip on the long symphonic
stride. Once again there are some fantastic wispy passages contrasted with
a Tchaikovskian pulse mixed with Miaskovsky. It’s a substantial and confident
piece. The performing temperature and the bloom in the sound and possessed
playing places it above the Third. The Zhaporozhy Cossacks
features a stirring final hymn but has nothing as arresting as the start
of the Second Symphony. Isolated competition in the Symphony includes versions
by Yondani Butt and the Philharmonia on ASV CD DCA 1129, by Zdenek Macal on
Delos DE3178, by the composer in 1950 on Consonance 813002 and by Keith Clark
on Naxos 8.550899 (1995) originally Marco Polo 8.223106. The daisy-fresh First
Symphony is on CD3 alongside the diverting Red Poppy suite.
The fourth CD starts with another ballet suite – this time from The
Bronze Horseman. The first movement reeks of Meistersinger
while the second carries traces of Borodin. There is a proud and dainty grace
about this music which places it as a successor to Glazunov's finest ballet
scores. The BBCPO play idiomatically. One might wonder if parts of its grand
statuary might easily have read across into a National Socialist rally surrounded
by Albert Speer's 'kolossal' architecture. Even so you can't help falling
for its awesome overstatement. The Horn Concerto sings sturdily and
in Germanic romantic accents sounding somewhat like the Schoeck and Strauss
(No. 1). In the first movement a striking melody is rollingly taken by Watkins.
The music becomes more Slavonic in the final movement. though this soon dispels
in deference to a flavour of Teutonic ‘trauer’ music.
The fifth and last disc comprises a totally unhackneyed selection overtures
and orchestral works. The Concert Waltz is eruptive in the manner
of the two Glazunov examples. It has none of Prokofiev’s psychological collisions.
The Ballad (an early piece) is akin to the Glazunov and
Bridge salon pieces. The Overture on Slavonic Themes is strangely
Beethovenian (2.01), in parts, fugal (5.36) - broadly romantic but finally
uncompelling. Gyul'Sara is the longest piece on the disc at
just over 16 minutes. You need to think in terms of a modernised Russian
Easter Festival Overture with oriental accents, a central fugue and some
simply magnificent brass writing out of En Saga. Did Basil Poledouris
hear this before writing the music for the Conan films? Shakh-Senem
is Arabian (try 6.02) in the manner of Rimsky's Antar, Balakirev's
Tamar and Borodin's Prince Igor. Barbaric grandeur and exoticism
strike sparks off each other (7.30). The Heroic March has an
abrasive tread. There is some great dizzy contour work for the horn choir
at 3.14. It’s all well worth hearing and, as David Nice says in his far from
euphoric notes, this work is closer to a tone poem than to a gormless march.
To close proceedings there’s ten minutes worth of Holiday at Ferghana.
More exotic Middle-Eastern markets, camels and bazaars. Thank Heavens there
is none of the 'bizarre' cheapskate atmosphere of the pier-end band. Instead
the music has an authentic snap and finger-cymbal sparkle. If anything the
linkage is with the sincere exoticism achieved by Biarent and Schmitt.
There is plenty more Gliere to come too. Let us not slight unheard on the
basis of the titles alone the overture Twenty Five Years of the Red Army
1943, the marching song Hitler's End Will Come, Victory Overture
1944, the Fantasy for the Komintern-Festival - for military wind
orchestra (1924), March of the Red Army for wind orchestra (1924),
Festive Overture for the 20th Anniversary of the October-Revolution
(1937), The friendship of the peoples - Overture on the 5th anniversary
of the Soviet Constitution (1941), the Glory of the Soviet Army Cantata,
the ballet Chrysis, the Trizna symphonic poem, the Imitation
of Jezekiel - symphonic poem for narrator and orchestra (1921) not to
mention the operas Rachel from the 1920s and Leila and Mejnun from
1940.
The notes from the original discs are now gathered into one booklet. They
are pretty extensive and the author is David Nice with one contribution from
John Humphries. The text is packed with rewarding details and the depth of
knowledge of the Soviet context is manifest.
There is a rather good Gliere
website which is well worth looking at.
I wonder if – beyond the unrecorded Gliere - there is any chance of hearing
the numerous Lev Knipper symphonies, Ivan Dzerzhinsky’s piano concertos and
operas and Yuri Shaporin’s profoundly impressive trilogy of choral-orchestral
works? The world of Russian music collectors waits to snap up the first commercial
recordings of these works.
There is no competition for this Gliere set: none whatsoever. The price is
irresistible. The whole thing is done with Chandos style which delivers elite
results in this voluptuously lyrical and vividly imagined music.
Rob Barnett
Full tracklist
Reinhold GLIÈRE (1875-1956)
Orchestral Collection
CD1
Symphony No.3, Op.42 ‘Ilya Muromets’ in B minor
I Wandering Pilgrims: Ilya Muromets and Svyagotor. 1. Andante sostenuto [7:55];
2. Allegro risoluto – Tranquillo misterioso – Tempo I [14:58]; 3. II Nightingale
the Robber. Andante [21:33]; 4. III At the Court of Vladimir the Mighty Sun.
Allegro – Andante – Allegro [7:10]; IV The Heroic Deeds and Petrification
of Ilya Muromets 5. Allegro tumultuoso – Tranquillo – Giocoso [11:47]; 6.
Poco meno – Maestoso solenne [14:30] Total time: [78:08] BBC Philharmonic:
Sir Edward Downes
CD2
Symphony No.2, Op.25 in C minor
1. I Allegro pesante [14:03]; 2. II Allegro giocoso [7:19]; 3. III Andante
con variatzioni: Andante; Variazione I. Poco più mosso; Variazione II. Vivace;
Varizione III. Andante; Variazione IV. Scherzando; Variazione V. Allegro;
Variazione VI. Presto; Coda. Tempo di comincio [13:00]; 4 IV. Allegro vivace
[11:14]
The Zaporozhy Cossacks, Op.64
5. Introduction [3:25]; 6. The Cossacks write the letter, then read it [1:11];
7. They laugh [2:11]; 8. They dance and rejoice [9:12]; 9. Finale [2:07] Total
time: [64:09] BBC Philharmonic: Sir Edward Downes
CD3
Symphony No.1, Op.8 in E flat major
1. Andante – Allegro – Andante [12:26]; 2. Allegro molto vivace [6:56]; 3.
Andante [8:02]; 4. Finale. Allegro [6:44]
Suite from ‘The Red Poppy’, Op.70
5. I Heroic Coolie Dance. Allegro giocoso [3:47]; II Scene and Dance. 6. i)
Scene. Andante [6:39]; 7. ii) Dance. Allegretto [1:48]; 8. III Chinese Dance.
Allegro moderato [1:52]; 9. IV. Phoenix. Andante [5:42]; 10. V. Valse. Lento
[2:24]; 11. VI. Russian Sailor’s Dance. Allegro – Pesante – Moderato – Animato
– Sostenuto poco – Più tranquillo – Più mosso – Presto – Più mosso – Prestissimo
[3:56] Total time: [60:40] BBC Philharmonic: Sir Edward Downes
CD4
Suite from ‘The Bronze Horseman’
1. 1. i) Introduction. Andante [3:04]; 2. ii) On the Senate Square. Allegro
[2:27]; 3. iii) Dance on the Square [2:16]; 4. 2. i) Eugene. Moderato [2:10];
5. ii) Parasha. Andantino [1:12]; 6. iii) Lyric scene. Andante [4:40]; 7.
Dancing scene. Vivace [6:12]; 8. 4. i) Fortune-telling. Vivace [2:46]; 9.
ii) Dancing in a ring with dancing. Andante – Alegretto [3:31]; 10. 5. Meeting
(second lyric scene). Allegro agitato [6:56]; 11. 6. Waltz. Tempo di valse
[3:41]; 12. 7. Anticipation (Beginning of the storm). Allegro molto agitato
[3:09]; 13. 8. Hymn to the Great City [3:44]
Concerto for Horn and Orchestra, Op.91*
14. Allegro [11:28]; 15. Andante [6:21]; 16. Moderato – Allegro vivace [5:55]
Total time: [70:16]
BBC Philharmonic: Sir Edward Downes. Richard Watkins – Horn*
CD5
1. Overture: Gyul’sara [16:58]; 2. Concert Waltz, Op.90 [5:59]; 3. Overture:
Shakh-Senem. Allegro moderato [15:57]; 4. Ballad, Op.4* (Arranged for small
orchestra by V. Derzhanovsky) Andante [5:43]; 5. Overture on Slavonic Themes
[9:42]; 6. Heroic March for the Buryat-Mongolian ASSR, Op.71. Tempo di Marcia
[11:12]; 7. Overture: Holiday at Ferghana, Op.75 Allegro assai. Festivo [9:05].
Total time: [75:30] BBC Philharmonic: Vassily Sinaisky. Peter Dixon: Cello*
Recording venue: Studio 7 Concert Hall, New Broadcasting House, Manchester,
England: 5-6 September 1991 (CD1); 16-17 December, 1991 (CD2); 12-13 November,
1992 (CD3); 15-16 March, 1994 (CD4); 21-22 May, 1996 (CD5).
CHANDOS CHAN 10679 (5)
Done with Chandos style … elite results … voluptuously lyrical and vividly imagined … The price is irresistible.