Glazunov Raymonda
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov
Label: IMP Masters
Magazine Review Date: 8/1996
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 72
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 30366 0006-7
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Raymonda |
Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov, Composer
Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov, Composer Kirov Opera Orchestra Viktor Fedotov, Conductor |
| Concert Waltz No. 1 |
Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov, Composer
Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov, Composer Kirov Opera Orchestra Viktor Fedotov, Conductor |
Composer or Director: Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov
Label: Naxos
Magazine Review Date: 8/1996
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 139
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 8 553503/4
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Raymonda |
Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov, Composer
Alexander Anissimov, Conductor Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov, Composer Moscow Symphony Orchestra |
Author:
If you want to be reminded just how great the three Tchaikovsky ballets really are – and why The Sleeping Beauty remains the best three-act ballet score of them all – then listen to the complete Raymonda. Not that it’s a bad piece of work by any means. Even the bottom line – which is that Tchaikovsky simply has inspired dance-melodies by the yard while Glazunov doesn’t – is something turned to good use in Raymonda. For while Tchaikovsky finds a new idea or two for each of his characteristic dances, which only throws still more into relief the few truly symphonic stretches of his scores (of which the “Sleep” interlude in The Sleeping Beauty has to be the finest), Glazunov forges connections throughout. A waltz melody becomes a pizzicato variation; even a racy coda turns out to be a brilliant transformation of the grand “Pas de deux” with further themes appended. The three principal characters – sweet Raymonda, her chivalrous hero and the lovesick villain (a Saracen, naturally) – have their leitmotifs, but the plot remains uninterestingly confused (still no reason why either company shouldn’t give us more details in the booklet – reproducing the scenario that accompanies the printed score would have been enough). It serves only to provide Glazunov with every flavouring in the balletic book: medievalism and moonshine in Act 1, orientalia in Act 2, a Magyar divertissement in the last and weakest of the acts (poor stuff compared with the outer acts of Coppelia).
That makes for a feeble sense of unity, but few dull moments; and so welcome to a first-rate complete performance. Alexander Anissimov was a conductor unfamiliar to me (some may have heard his much-praised Tchaikovsky Cherevichki at Wexford). He keeps the Moscow Symphony Orchestra on their toes: the strings are keener of articulation than their Bolshoi or Kirov counterparts while balances and dynamics are all observed in an end result of greater sophistication than you might expect from this source (with handsome sound to match). Anissimov excels in the grand symphonic unfolding of the first two numbers and the two Entr’actes, over which he takes more time and care than Fedotov.
The Kirov’s former Music Director, Viktor Fedotov, obviously knows how many of the dance numbers need to move in conjunction with the choreography; the famous “Romanesca” and the two major waltzes are buoyantly charming in his hands. But this is a less caring interpretation as a whole – familiarity evidently breeds a certain indifference – and far from complete; unlike Anissimov, Fedotov observes two major cuts in the long First Act and omits three dances in the Third, though he does give us Glazunov’s two supplementary numbers (an alternative variation for Raymonda in Act 2 and a rather good “Mazurka”) as well as the mildy charming Concert Waltz No. 1 by way of a bonus.
If you really feel unable to wade through the whole score – and it would be a pity to miss the more or less through-composed Act 1 in its entirety – then there’s always Jarvi’s intelligent cross-section on a single Chandos disc: it omits the tedious Magyarisms of the final divertissement, and the only casualty of distinction is the jugglers’ number. But in 1986 the SNO ensemble was far from impressive, especially as captured in such murky sound; and Naxos’s two CDs still work out cheaper. It only remains for Naxos to capitalize by re-recording the Tchaikovsky ballets with this conductor, orchestra and sound engineers, a team of real distinction.'
That makes for a feeble sense of unity, but few dull moments; and so welcome to a first-rate complete performance. Alexander Anissimov was a conductor unfamiliar to me (some may have heard his much-praised Tchaikovsky Cherevichki at Wexford). He keeps the Moscow Symphony Orchestra on their toes: the strings are keener of articulation than their Bolshoi or Kirov counterparts while balances and dynamics are all observed in an end result of greater sophistication than you might expect from this source (with handsome sound to match). Anissimov excels in the grand symphonic unfolding of the first two numbers and the two Entr’actes, over which he takes more time and care than Fedotov.
The Kirov’s former Music Director, Viktor Fedotov, obviously knows how many of the dance numbers need to move in conjunction with the choreography; the famous “Romanesca” and the two major waltzes are buoyantly charming in his hands. But this is a less caring interpretation as a whole – familiarity evidently breeds a certain indifference – and far from complete; unlike Anissimov, Fedotov observes two major cuts in the long First Act and omits three dances in the Third, though he does give us Glazunov’s two supplementary numbers (an alternative variation for Raymonda in Act 2 and a rather good “Mazurka”) as well as the mildy charming Concert Waltz No. 1 by way of a bonus.
If you really feel unable to wade through the whole score – and it would be a pity to miss the more or less through-composed Act 1 in its entirety – then there’s always Jarvi’s intelligent cross-section on a single Chandos disc: it omits the tedious Magyarisms of the final divertissement, and the only casualty of distinction is the jugglers’ number. But in 1986 the SNO ensemble was far from impressive, especially as captured in such murky sound; and Naxos’s two CDs still work out cheaper. It only remains for Naxos to capitalize by re-recording the Tchaikovsky ballets with this conductor, orchestra and sound engineers, a team of real distinction.'
Glazunov Raymonda
Glazunov Raymonda,Op 57
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