Customer Reviews

Enchanted Lake / Baba Yaga / Kikimora

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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Anatol Lyadov is one of the more recent Russian composers of the Romance period, and one of the less popular. This might be due to his small canon of works, for surely it is not due to its quality. This CD contains many of Lyadov's best works. Their inspirations included Russian folk music, music for stage performances, and music for ceremonies. Regardless of the inspiration, the result is beauty. The pieces range from dramatic to soft in mood, but all are firmly in the style of Russian romantic classics. I highly recommend this CD.

This is really such a fine CD. A great recording with wonderful resonant sonorities.
The Enchanted Lake is my favourite. The work is so peaceful and time just stands still. I play this track time and time again.
A really worthwhile purchase.

There have been several fine surveys of Liadov's modest body of orchestral works, but few of them are entirely complete (understandable given that they won't quite fit on a single disc, it seems). Given that the disc at hand clocks in at 55 minutes there would have been room for more, however (and I doubt that the remaining works could have filled a complete "vol.2"). It is particularly curious that the disc at hand includes the three fanfares, which are rather meaningless on a disc like this rather than, say, the Scene at the Village Inn, for instance. Musical rewards are relatively scarce in the small Eight Russian folk-songs as well, but these are at least charming and agreeable enough to merit a listen.

Due to his laziness Liadov could never have become one of the great composers, but his mature orchestral miniatures (The enchanted lake, Baba-Yaga, Kikimora, The musical snuff-box) are at least remarkable, colorful and wonderful small tone paintings written in a style that - although obviously belonging to the Russian silver age - reveals more than a trace of a personal voice. Perhaps it is partially due to Bātiz's approach with the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, but the stylistic connection between Liadov and early Stravinsky is rather striking (and Stravinsky was an admirer of Liadov's music).

The performances are colorful and energetic though perhaps not entirely idiomatic; the Mexico players, while not necessarily sounding particularly Mexican, misses out on some of the dreamy, atmospheric quality of the music and are sometimes unsubtle. They play with plenty of vigor and vitality, however, and the minor Polonaises, for instance, come off very well. The sound is spacious and clear, and overall this is a fine sampler of Liadov's orchestral music, although Sinaisky on Chandos is perhaps a more obvious choice for a survey like this (for the most famous miniatures, on the other hand, there is plenty of pretty substantial competition). Recommended, nonetheless.