Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Operatic Excerpts (Evgeny Svetlanov)

Information

Composer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

CD1:

• The Voyevoda
• The Oprichnik
• Eugene Onegin
• The Maid of Orleans

CD2:

• Mazepa
• The Slippers
• The Sorceress
• The Queen of Spades
• Iolanta

USSR State Symphony Orchestra

Evgeny Svetlanov, conductor

Date: 1987

Label: Svetlanova

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Review

Older listeners with an avid interest in Russian orchestral music of the later nineteenth century will recall with fondness Soviet conductor Evgeny Svetlanov's distinguished series of recordings for the Melodiya label called The Anthology of Russian Symphonic Music. Not only did Svetlanov lead the USSR Symphony Orchestra or USSR Academic Symphony Orchestra in full-blooded recordings of the standard and not-so-standard Russian symphonic repertoire -- the symphonies of Tchaikovsky and Borodin were included along with the symphonies of Arensky and Kalinnikov -- he also led them in recordings of nearly unknown repertoire, for example, the present two-disc set reissue of orchestral excerpts from nine of Tchaikovsky's operas. Along with four excerpts from the well-known Eugene Onegin, there are five excerpts from The Maid of Orleans, four from The Sorceress, three each from Mazepa and The Slippers, and one each from The Voyevoda, The Oprichnik, The Queen of Spades,and Iolanta, none of which were at the time more than names in a book to even the most dedicated Western fans of Russian music. Each work on this two-disc set is given a spirited and committed effort by Svetlanov and the USSR Academic Symphony, and while the strings may sometimes be too soupy, the winds sometimes too reedy, the brass sometimes too bleaty, and Svetlanov's interpretations sometimes too emphatic, these recordings, because they are the only recordings for so many of these pieces, will still be mandatory listening for fans of Russian orchestral music. Melodiya's stereo sound is big and colorful, if not always particularly flattering.

-- James Leonard

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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Romantic Russian composer. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the current classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto, the Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy, several symphonies, and the opera Eugene Onegin. Despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovsky's life was punctuated by personal crises and depression.

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Evgeny Svetlanov (6 September 1928 – 3 May 2002) was a Soviet and Russian conductor, composer and pianist. Born in Moscow, he studied conducting with Alexander Gauk at the Moscow Conservatory. From 1965 to 2000 he was principal conductor of the USSR State Symphony Orchestra (now the Russian State Symphony Orchestra). Svetlanov was also music director of the Residentie Orchestra (The Hague) from 1992 to 2000 and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1997 to 1999. He was particularly noted for his interpretations of Russian works, from Mikhail Glinka to the present day.

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