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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
As the joke goes - who is the best known Russian composer after Tchaikovsky?...Rimsky 'but of'Korsakov. I'm sure some would say there are others to consider but, as this selection of his work by Naxos, culled from a number of their releases, demonstrates, he was an extremely versatile composer and more than a match for his more illustrious contemporary. Indeed, perhaps more than Tchaikovsky, Rimsky Korsakov, like many Russian composers of the mid to late 19th Century, made tremendous use of the wide variety of orchestral sounds available to conjour up moods, images and musical dramas - without losing sight of the need to deliver them in the shape of memorable tunes. This is ably demonstrated by the opening piece, 'Capriccio espagnol', and the two excerpts from his best known work, 'Scheherazade', but even the perhaps lesser known works - the exuberant 'Dance of the Tumblers' for example - display a lively and inventive musical imagination at work. True, the 'Russian Easter Festival Overture', a solid, accomplished work, may not reach the dizzy heights of the '1812 Overture' but The 'Allegretto-Adagio' from his Symphony No.2, with its twittering woodwind borne on gentle, gusty, string breezes, is as good as any Tchaikovsky slow movement. Besides, one suspects the great man himself would have been proud to have composed something as impressive as 'The Festival at Baghdad-The Sea, from Scheherazade', the track that concludes this selection, or the uplifting, finger tapping 'Cortege from Mlada' - the father of many a 20th Century English composer's march.
Despite the variety of orchestras and conductors involved for this selection the sound quality and performances are uniformly excellent - warm and robust with a good balance between strings, woodwind, percussion and brass. If you want to hear the best of Rimsky-Korsakov, and see how versatile he was, then this record is a good start and, who knows, it may tempt you to delve deeper into the work of a composer who had that gift of composing melodies that embed themselves in your mind.
Despite the variety of orchestras and conductors involved for this selection the sound quality and performances are uniformly excellent - warm and robust with a good balance between strings, woodwind, percussion and brass. If you want to hear the best of Rimsky-Korsakov, and see how versatile he was, then this record is a good start and, who knows, it may tempt you to delve deeper into the work of a composer who had that gift of composing melodies that embed themselves in your mind.
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I ordered this CD for use in the classroom. Unfortunately the recording is far too quiet for this. It therefore didnt meet my needs.
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful
One of the `famous five' Russian composers (the others were Balakirev, Borodin, Cui and Mussorgsky).
28 July 2007
Format:Audio CD
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, 1844-1908, Russian.
"If we leave out of account Lodyzhensky, who accomplished nothing, and Lyadov, who appeared later, Balakirev's circle consisted of Balakirev, Cui, Mussorgsky, Borodin, and me (the French have retained the denomination of 'Les Cinq ' for us to this day)." (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov).
This Naxos CD is aimed at the beginner or occasional classical music listener and aims to provide a cross section of the entire works of Rimsky-Korsakov on a single CD of around one hour duration. It's difficult of course to achieve a satisfactory representation of a composer's lifetime achievements in such short time, but this CD does achieve its aim in that it offers an affordable introduction to Rimsky-Korsakov which may enable the listener to either pursue these works further, or simply to collect the entire Naxos `Best Of' range.
If the intention is to collect the series it will provide a good, although slightly abbreviated, library of classical music. Those requiring further listening are helped by the sleeve notes which give recommended further listening (all Naxos label CD's of course!).
It should be noted that the Naxos 2CD `Very Best Of' releases offer slightly better value than the single CD versions in this `Best Of' series.
That said, this is a good introduction to classical music for those on a careful budget.
The complete Naxos `Best Of' series (those indicated* also have `Very Best Of' releases):
Bach*, Bartok, Beethoven*, Berlioz, Bizet, Brahms, Chopin*, Debussy*, Dvorak*, Elgar*, Faure, Gershwin, Glazunov, Grieg*, Handel*, Haydn, Liszt, Lutoslawski, Mendelsshon, Mozart*, Paganini, Prokofiev, Puccini*, Rachmaninov*, Ravel*, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rossini, Saint-Saens, Schubert, Schumann, Satie*, Shostakovich*, Sibelius*, Strauss (Johann) II*, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky*, Verdi*, Vivaldi*, Wagner, Weber.
"If we leave out of account Lodyzhensky, who accomplished nothing, and Lyadov, who appeared later, Balakirev's circle consisted of Balakirev, Cui, Mussorgsky, Borodin, and me (the French have retained the denomination of 'Les Cinq ' for us to this day)." (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov).
This Naxos CD is aimed at the beginner or occasional classical music listener and aims to provide a cross section of the entire works of Rimsky-Korsakov on a single CD of around one hour duration. It's difficult of course to achieve a satisfactory representation of a composer's lifetime achievements in such short time, but this CD does achieve its aim in that it offers an affordable introduction to Rimsky-Korsakov which may enable the listener to either pursue these works further, or simply to collect the entire Naxos `Best Of' range.
If the intention is to collect the series it will provide a good, although slightly abbreviated, library of classical music. Those requiring further listening are helped by the sleeve notes which give recommended further listening (all Naxos label CD's of course!).
It should be noted that the Naxos 2CD `Very Best Of' releases offer slightly better value than the single CD versions in this `Best Of' series.
That said, this is a good introduction to classical music for those on a careful budget.
The complete Naxos `Best Of' series (those indicated* also have `Very Best Of' releases):
Bach*, Bartok, Beethoven*, Berlioz, Bizet, Brahms, Chopin*, Debussy*, Dvorak*, Elgar*, Faure, Gershwin, Glazunov, Grieg*, Handel*, Haydn, Liszt, Lutoslawski, Mendelsshon, Mozart*, Paganini, Prokofiev, Puccini*, Rachmaninov*, Ravel*, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rossini, Saint-Saens, Schubert, Schumann, Satie*, Shostakovich*, Sibelius*, Strauss (Johann) II*, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky*, Verdi*, Vivaldi*, Wagner, Weber.
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