RUSSIAN & UKRAINIAN Russian & Ukrainian Symphonies and Orchestral Works
RUSSIAN & UKRAINIAN Russian & Ukrainian Symphonies and Orchestral Works Occupying a vast land mass that has long been a melting pot of home-spun traditions and external influences, Russia’s history is deeply encrypted in the orchestral music to be found in this catalogue. Journeying from the Russian Empire through the Soviet era to the contemporary scene, the music of the Russian masters covers a huge canvas of richly coloured and immediately accessible works. Influences of folklore, orthodox liturgy, political brutality and human passion are all to be found in the listings. These range from 19th-century masterpieces penned by ‘The Mighty Five’ (Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Borodin, and Cui) to the edgy works of Prokofiev and Shostakovich that rubbed against the watchful eye of the Soviet authorities, culminating in the symphonic output of one of today’s most noted Russian composers, Alla Pavlova. Tchaikovsky wrote his orchestral works in a largely cosmopolitan style, leaving it to the band of brothers in The Mighty Five to fully shake off the Germanic influence that had long dominated their homeland’s musical scene. As part of this process, they imparted a thoroughly ethnic identity to their compositions. The titles of the works alone are enough to get the imaginative juices running, witness Borodin’s In the Steppes of Central Asia, Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh, and Mussorgsky’s St John’s Night on the Bare Mountain. Supplementing the purely symphonic works, instrumental music from operas and ballets is also to be found in, for example, Prokofiev’sThe Love for Three Oranges Suite, Shostakovich’s four Ballet Suites, and Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite.
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