This is a useful set and allowing for one or two lapses is a captivating survey of this forward-looking doyen among Russian composers.
Bakels in
Sheherazade does not stint on stabbing attack though it sometimes seems to lighten the drama rather than accentuate it. His endearing contouring of
The Young Prince and Princess is wonderfully effective and his confiding way with the solos is poetic enough. However if you were after the outrageous colour and drama of the Soviet classics you need to look elsewhere. Bakels' approach may well suit you very well if you never quite acclimatised to braying Russian brass and lurid Bolshoi technicolour. Markus Gundermann is the voice of Sheherazade and he holds the attention with his fined phrasing. You can hear him at his best in track 2 and also pick up on some truly entrancing bassoon playing. Bakels'
Antar has its charms but some of the phrasing is so tautly wound that its poetic charge goes for little. This is certainly not my favourite version of this imaginative and melodically gracious piece. Do try Svetlanov on the Svet and Hyperion labels for a contrast.
If the first disc is overarched by the exotic-oriental ideal the second starts with the hyper-idealised Iberian image of
Capriccio Espagnol. This is gloriously done - not a single miscalculation. The ringing and singing violins put not a foot wrong. The single movement Piano Concerto also emerges delightfully and ends with a cavalier flourish. The
Tsar Saltan suite with its fanfares and fantasy looks forward to
Le Coq d'Or and to Prokofiev's
Love of Three Oranges. Interesting that the collection steers clear of
Le Coq d'Or. After these satirical and fanciful pictures comes
Sadko - a completely serious and vivid sea-picture with one of those buoyant winged melodies for which Rimsky is famed (7:12). The
Capriccio Espagnol of 1887 is often seen in harness with the
Russian Easter Festival Overture which ends disc 2. As with the
Capriccio this is another very pleasing and exciting interpretation - nicely recorded.
Disc 3 is packed tight at almost 83 minutes playing time. After a dashing
Tsar's Bride overture - I would never have guessed 1898 as its date - we get the rather lovely
Pan Voyevoda suite with its operatic source fixed on a hero pianist and with Chopin never that far distant. The suite often has the feel of one of those nationalist dance sets from
Nutcracker or
Raymonda. The
Christmas Eve suite runs the gamut from glistening mysteries similar to Bax's tone poem of the same name to the chiming and tinkling of the
Csardas and
Rain of Shooting Stars. After the pleasing
Overture on Russian Themes comes the suite from
The Snow Maiden with its mirliton evocation in
Dance of the Birds.
This bargain price set is rounded out with Rimsky's other two symphonies. Alert playing lifts the First Symphony from the dutiful. The
Fantasia on Serbian Themes is lovingly done and is well worth discovering if you have not yet done so. Lovely flute playing and dour brass are prominent. The sturdy Third Symphony is interesting and a little like Glazunov - listen to the scherzo. However this is not vintage Rimsky. Bakels makes the symphony skip but it's no
Antar.
The whole set is well recorded and you could do a great deal worse than pick up this box. There is better to be had if you can put up with 1960s and 1970s analogue especially in the case of
Antar for which Rozhdestvensky and Svetlanov are good alternatives if you can track them down.
Andrew Huth's 2007 notes are a sure-footed guide through these often ear-tickling and sometimes seductive works.
Rob Barnett
Reviews of the separate CDs:
CD 1
Don
Satz
CD 2
Paul
Shoemaker
CD 3
Terry
Barfoot
CD 4
Steve
Vasta
Noriko Ogawa (piano)
