Lyadov's orchestral pieces have always had a tenuous hold on the repertory, and afford glimpses of an exceptional talent. His failure to realize more of this was partly due to a peculiarly Russian compulsive idleness: readers of Goncharov's Oblomov will recognize this heroic inertia. But he was also highly self-critical, and essentially a miniaturist who could probably never have achieved the full length ballet The Firebird commissioned from him by Diaghilev. Stravinsky always felt that Lyadov was more relieved than hurt when the commission fell through, and would have defended the score that was the outcome. The sharp invention of Kikimora and Baba-Yaga point straight forward to Stravinsky from Mussorgsky (who also admired Lyadov); and in the shifting harmonies and dissolving textures of The Enchanted Lake there is not only acknowledgement of Siegfried's Forest Murmurs but anticipation of Scriabin and even the Schoenberg of Farben. These, the pieces which really sustain Lyadov's Western reputation, such as it is, are sensitively played here by an orchestra under the veteran conductor Veronika Dudarova.
She is less successful in energizing the orchestra for the sharply observed suite of Eight Russian Folksongs, or in the Scherzo (called here First Scherzo: there never was a second, and it took Lyadov from 1870 to 1886 to write it, despite programming of it by the exasperated Rimsky-Korsakov in the 1879-80 season). The Dance of the Amazon is a cheery piece, with some 'oriental' intervals in the middle, written for Ida Rubinstein; and the Doleful Song, or Nenie, is a grave, beautiful funeral lament. About olden times makes charming use of a Russian folk-song, and the Polonaise steps out with splendid panache and includes an excellent tune in its trio section. The most substantial of all these pieces, in terms of length, is From the Apocalypse, but it really confirms that Lyadov was most successful with the short genre piece in which his acute ear and sharp imagination were not tested by the demands of larger structures.'