Here, in a celebration of Russian whimsy, we have a large swathe of Russian Balalaika popular favourites taken from 1962 and 1967 sources. The music is played with enormous gusto and no little sentimentality. There is never a whiff of an apologetic sound. On the contrary this giant music-making, very much in your face – a sort of super
From Russia With Love. I suggest that the Mercury LP from which the first 14 tracks on this CD derive played its part in influencing the 1963 Barry score. The orchestra in both cases is filled out with wind and brass instruments and the ubiquitous domra, gusli, bayan (Russian accordion) and tambourine.
The trill and the tremble are central to this music, as is an irresistible immersion in melancholy. The latter can be found in
Evening Bells. Acceleration dances of the type found in
Semyonova,
Dance of the Buffoons,
Kamarinskaya – the same dance taken by Glinka – and
Fantasia on Volga Melodies will leave you breathless and red-cheeked. What did they do to the bayan player who rushes his socks off in the
Fantasia? Snowy romance is radiant in
Midnight in Moscow. The uproariously remarkable
Flight of the Bumble-Bee establishes a further link with the classical world. Vyacheslav Grokhovsky’s name we know from his orchestral music on
Campion. He proves just as imaginative in these commercial arrangements: fragile, crystalline, icicle cold, whimsically imaginative and foot-tapping as in the classic
Kalinka.
James Murray documents this collection like a trooper giving an entrée to a repertoire that is even now rather overlooked.
A dazzling display of saturated colour and accelerated toe-tapping pulse quickeners.
Rob Barnett
A dazzling display of saturated colour and accelerated toe-tapping pulse quickeners.
