Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; Modest Mussorgsky - Piano Trio; Pictures at an Exhibition (Bekova Sisters)

Information

Composer: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; Modest Mussorgsky

• Rimsky-Korsakov - Piano Trio in C minor
• Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition (arr. Bekova Sisters)

Bekova Sisters

    Elvira Bekova, violin

    Alfia Bekova, cello

    Eleonora Bekova, piano

Date: 1997

Label: Chandos

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Review

In 1897, Rimsky-Korsakov composed the rough draft for a piano trio in C minor. He polished the middle movements to performance level, but it was left to the composer’s son-in-law, Maximilian Steinberg, to reconstruct its outer movements some 30 years after the composer’s death. While Rimsky disparaged the work in his autobiography, its wistful lyricism and operatic scope hold your attention beyond the sometimes stilted interplay between instruments. The Bekova Sisters turn in idiomatic, sensitively dovetailed work, although violinist Elvira’s oily vibrato seems excessively sweet in soft, sustained passages.

Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition has been arranged for umpteen instrumental combinations of all shapes and sizes, but never, to my knowledge, for piano trio until the Bekova Sisters’ collective effort, recorded here for the first time. In essence, it’s Mussorsgky’s solo piano original mostly played intact, with many token interjections from the strings to reinforce accents and point up phrases. The instruments are deployed in a cut and dried manner that hardly taps into the music’s potential for textural interplay. Like Ravel, the Bekovas omit the reprise of the Promenade before the Market Place in Limoges. There are, to be sure, effective touches, like the violin’s spiccato rendition of the quarrelsome repeated notes in Samuel Goldberg and Schmuyle, or the eloquence of the cello declaming Byldo’s gloomy ox-cart melody. A harder-edged attitude toward dynamics would have been welcome, along with a more assertive, daring arranger.

-- Jed Distler

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Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (18 March 1844 – 21 June 1908) was a prominent Russian composer and a key figure in the development of Russian classical music. He was a member of the group of composers known as "The Five" which dedicated to creating a distinctively Russian sound. Rimsky-Korsakov is best known for his orchestral works, including Scheherazade, Capriccio Espagnol, and Russian Easter Overture. His compositions often feature vibrant orchestration, exotic themes, and rich harmonic textures. He also contributed to the development of Russian opera, with notable works such as The Snow Maiden and Sadko. 

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Modest Mussorgsky (21 March 1839 – 28 March 1881) is a Russian composer. Composing without training in his teens, he met several composers, with whom he later made up The Five, and received his first composition lessons from Mily Balakirev in 1857. His major works include the symphonic poem Night on Bald Mountain (1867), the great opera Boris Godunov (1868), and the famous piano cycle Pictures at an Exhibition (1874). His 65 songs describe vivid scenes of Russian life. After Mussorgsky’s death, his works were published in drastically edited form, purged of their distinctive starkness and unorthodox harmonies.

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The Bekova Sisters were born in Kazakhstan and studied at the Moscow Conservatory. After their much-publicised reunion in the West and sensational debut in 1989 on the South Bank, London, the Sisters have rapidly established themselves on the international music scene. They have performed in major festivals in Great Britain and Europe and record exclusively for Chandos. Their recordings to date include piano trios by Rachmaninoff, Brahms, Franck, Ravel, Martinu, Grechaninov, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Schubert and Shostakovich, cello sonatas by Brahms, and Elegy (arrangements of Russian encore pieces).

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