Though I couldn’t say I’d necessarily want to hear it again, the Carnaval Overture of 1892 comprises a perky, agreeable curtain-raiser, if rather lacking the thematic distinction and ebullient swagger of Dvorak’s eponymous offering (completed the previous year). Spring (1891) is a very pretty, at times genuinely touching, tone-picture and is tenderly delivered here, though the 25-year-old Glazunov’s vernal evocation would doubtless have made an even more ingratiating impression were the recorded sound richer and more atmospheric.
Golovschin also presides over deft, unfussy renderings of the Concert Waltzes (there is a clarinet slip some 17 seconds into No. 2 that could surely have been tidied up). The Moscow SO certainly sound as though they’re enjoying themselves, even if neither performance rivals Svetlanov’s 1977 Philharmonia accounts in terms of tonal allure and, well, sheer glamour. Glazunov’s incidental music for Salome dates from 1908 and comprises a weighty, ultimately dashing introduction (with strong echoes of Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet from 6'04'') and a disappointingly tame, routinely exotic “Dance of the Seven Veils” with not the slightest hint of depravity or eroticism (except for an occasional passing nod to the flower maidens of Parsifal). Golovschin draws an enthusiastic, colourful response from his Moscow players. Overall, an eminently pleasing hour’s worth and very decent value.'