Balakirev: Symphony No. 1; Islamey; Tamara

Mily Balakirev (Composer), Igor Golovschin (Conductor), Russian State Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra), Russian Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Russian State Symphony Orchestra, Russian Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Igor Golovschin
• Composer: Mily Balakirev
• Audio CD (June 28, 1994)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Naxos
• ASIN: B0000013YI
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #80,299 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Balakirev--Modest Cost, Excellent Performances!, September 9, 2003

By 

Paul Rossi "Paul Rossi" (Walla Walla, WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Balakirev: Symphony No. 1; Islamey; Tamara (Audio CD)

As a musical Russophile, I really enjoyed this CD of Mily Balakirev's orchestral music. It is a treasure.

Igor Golovschin gives wonderful, committed performances of unknown and underrated works. The First Symphony is beautiful, with lots of Russian themes from Balakirev's folk song collection. You will hear pre-echoes of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade." The woodwinds handle the Russian motivic sequencing very well. This work is underrated, and Naxos offers an inexpensive opportunity to hear these works.

"Tamara" is also very well-played and -conducted. It is similar to the account by Evgeny Svetlanov (on a two-CD Melodiya BMG set called "Symphonic Poems from Russia," also recommendable, if you can find it.). Golovschin studied under Svetlanov as Assistant
Conductor of the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, so this is no surpise. The full range of emotions comes across, and the orchestra plays very well as a unit.

It is also wonderful to have an orchestral transcription of Balakirev's piano showpiece, "Islamey," by Sergey Liapunov, a Balakirev disciple. The orchestra glitters, plays with power and conviction, and plays very emotionally and tenderly in "Islamey's" central section.

Overall, this is a wonderful CD to have in your collection, or if you are simply curious to sample Mily Balakirev's music. Either way, you cannot go wrong!

Other recommendations:

Mily Balakirev: Symphony No. 2, Overture on Russian Themes (Igor Golovschin, Moscow SO, Naxos)

Symphonic Poems from Russia (Evgeny Svetlanov, U.S.S.R. SO, Melodiya, 2 CD's)

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Exciting and upbeat, May 1, 2007

By 

Newton Ooi (Phoenix, Arizona United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Balakirev: Symphony No. 1; Islamey; Tamara (Audio CD)

Balakirev was one of the last great Russian composers of the Romantic era. He did not compose as many works as some of his counterparts, but those he did are quite good. This CD comprises some of his most famous symphonic pieces, and provide about an hour of exciting music. The themes are strong, upbeat, powerful; quite different from the drama of Glazunov's symphonies, or the melodic beauty of Tchaikovsky's ballets, or the Asiatic sounding works of Kalinnikov. This music is distinctly different from other Russian Romance composers, but is still great.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An exciting disc, December 25, 2009

By 

G.D. (Norway) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Balakirev: Symphony No. 1; Islamey; Tamara (Audio CD)

This is actually a very fine release, able, I think, to compete even with the Svetlanov recordings of the symphony. Igor Golovschin directs his old band, and gives us a clear, no-fuss, classically informed performance; it doesn't miss out on some of the more gripping drama of this music, either, however. The symphony itself belongs firmly to the Russian romantic tradition, cast in four movements (with the scherzo placed second); it is relatively ambitious in scope but Balakirev actually manages to pull of a work that doesn't really have any dull moments. Stylistically it isn't too far away from the Borodin symphonies, is heavily influenced by folk music and is stronger on atmosphere (and orchestration) than on thematic development, but the ideas themselves are actually pretty interesting, and in particular the first movement is stirring. The whole work is no masterpiece, perhaps, but a really good work, very convincingly realized here.

The piano work Islamey is one of Balakirev's most famous works; a striking, exotic-sounding and very effective work. It is given here in its orchestration by Lyapunov, which works rather well, but lacks the brilliance and some of the excitement of the piano original. The symphonic poem Tamara, however, is a masterpiece. Based on a Lermontov ballad, it opens and ends with slow, subdued and atmospheric depictions of the river Terek, rather ominously hinting at the themes to be used in the main body of the work, among them the two memorable, alluring love themes which are developed into a powerful climax. The work is also splendidly scored, and stands - I think - as one of the most striking symphonic poems of Russian Romanticism.

As they are in symphonies, Golovschin and the Russian State Symphony's performances are very convincing in the tone poems, and the recording is quite good as well. A very welcome release, this one, and one that can be strongly recommended. It does perhaps not wipe out memories of Svetlanov in these works, performances that are fiercer and more red-blooded, but not necessarily superior to Golovschin's more balanced and lyrical approach.