MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
AmazonUK AmazonUS

 

Alexander GLAZUNOV (1865-1936)
Symphony No.6 in C minor, Op.58 (1896) [35:51]
The Sea - Fantasy for orchestra (1889) [15:22]
Introduction and Salome’s Dance to Oscar Wilde’s drama Salome Op. 90 (1908) [15:19]
Royal Scottish National Orchestra/José Serebrier
rec. Henry Wood Hall, Glasgow, June 2008
WARNER CLASSICS 256469627
[66:48] 
Experience Classicsonline


José Serebrier has been working his way slowly but methodically through the Glazunov Symphonies. The resultant recordings have been a real boon to the discography of the composer – sumptuously recorded, excellently played and interpretatively insightful.
 

The Fifth was coupled with The Seasons whilst this Sixth also sports La Mer, and the Introduction and Dance from Salome. No.7 was coupled with the Fourth (2564632362) and the Eighth with the suite from Raymonda (2564619392). The early symphonies are to come and they will complete a notable cycle.

The Sixth is the latest entrant and it proves as fine and dramatic a performance as one might have wished. Serebrier can marry febrile intensity with a real concern for orchestral unanimity in a way some Russian predecessors couldn’t manage and the outcome is intensely exciting but disciplined. The opening movement is notably well controlled, the brass well balanced – the low brass not overpowering as is tempting - and there’s good string weight. Fortunately the winds are not over-prominent but assume a natural perspective. All this attests to the hard work that has gone on between conductor, orchestra and the control booth. Serebrier’s approach is one of controlled and cumulative tension, one that pays court to Glazunov’s symphonic writing with skill and sensitivity; listen especially to the unfolding of the variations second movement, which is accomplished with real warmth. The wind choirs’ unanimity, the brassy interjections and the violins’ skirl are all propelled with energy and precision. The delightfully lissom scherzo is another virtue. Everywhere one feels Serebrier controlling things with vivid surety and in its linearity the performance is three minutes faster than Svetlanov’s recording, for instance. 

La Mer – or The Sea – is a rhapsodic fantasy written in 1889 and opens with tremendous immediacy. It’s full of delightful melodic strength, a tinge of Wagner, plenty of brass panache – from growling trombone to rat-a-tat trumpet. It’s true that there are generic elements here – the calmly reflective stasis included – but when it’s played as well as here you can enjoy a sumptuous quarter of an hour. Rimsky didn’t much like it but never mind. The Introduction and Salome’s Dance to Oscar Wilde’s drama Salome is rather more his kind of work. The Introduction lurches between blowsy melodrama and moving quietude but the Dance is a Rimsky-tinged piece of exotica that excites if not exactly entices. 

As for the Sixth whilst one would not wish to be without Svetlanov (SVET212618 – the whole cycle) in this symphony or Golovanov (EMI Great Conductors of the Century – 5751122) – some people dislike his Sixth but I don’t there are also Butt (ASV 904 – with Raymonda and Triumphal March), Otaka (BISCD1368 – coupled with the First) and Järvi (Bamberg Symphony – an excellent cycle on Orfeo but you’ll need to search it out as it’s not in print); as well as the more combustible Fedoseyev whose Sixth isn’t currently available but whose whole cycle needs to be reissued as a matter of urgency, as well the Russian State/Polyansky (CHAN10238 or Brilliant). At budget price there’s the Moscow SO/Anissimov (Naxos). 

Final paragraphs mean quick conclusions. This is another outstanding contribution from the Royal Scottish-Serebrier-Warner Classics team. When the cycle is completed we are going to have to reassess recommendations in the light of this executant excellence, conductorial acuity and fine recorded sound, and I suspect we are going to have this cycle there or thereabouts as a general front-runner. 

Jonathan Woolf 

Message received:

In his review of Glazunovs 6th symphony, Jonathan Woolf mentions "the more combustible Fedoseyev whose Sixth isn’t currently available but whose whole cycle needs to be reissued as a matter of urgency".

Actually, the whole Fedoseyev cycle can be bought from iTunes at an incredibly low price. For Swedish customers it's available at 54 Swedish crowns.
At todays rates, 54 crowns is around 7 dollars, 5 euros or 4.50 GB pounds. (There may of course be copyright rules that make it unavailable in some countries.)
Bargain of the year?

Yours,

Jan Arell
Gothenburg, Sweden


 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.