RIMSKY-KORSAKOV, N.A.: Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh (The) (Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, 2008) (NTSC) 2.110277–78
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV, N.A.: Snow Maiden Suite (The) / Sadko, Musical Picture / Mlada Suite / The Golden Cockerel Suite (Seattle Symphony, Schwarz) 8.572787
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV, N.A.: Scheherazade / Tale of Tsar Saltan Suite (Seattle Symphony, Schwarz) 8.572693
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV, N.A.: Capriccio espagnol / Overtures (Seattle Symphony, Schwarz) 8.572788

Naxos is on a Russian roll this month with a double-hitter from this member of The Five. Bass Mikhail Kazakov, who made an impressive star turn in Dallas earlier this year in the title role of Boris Godunov, headlines the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari’s The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh, a dreamy work widely thought to be the Russian Parsifal. Also out this month on Naxos are orchestral suites from several of Rimsky-Korsakov’s other operas, including The Snow Maiden, Sadko and Le Coq d’or. Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony are in incredibly fine form with this repertoire, which you can also hear on recordings of Scheherazade and Capriccio espagnol, also released on Naxos this past May and September, respectively. © 2011 Operavore/WQXR (New York)

Schwarz is more in the groove in the romantic portrayal of the ‘Young Prince and Princess’, where there is some delicious, but not overindulgent string playing, and the rhythmic pliability is much more natural and organic. And in the finale the pacing is also more sure-footed, though there’s a lack of sheer orchestral power at the climaxes—something that’s revealed mercilessly by the recording quality.

In the less familiar Tsar Saltan Suite, there’s greater vibrancy and feeling for the music, helped by a stronger string presence in the balance. Tempos click into place effortlessly, and the lapping figure which represents the sea comes across with more character than in Sheherazade. Perhaps the month between the sessions found the performers on a better day: recorded slightly later still, the Flight of the Burnblcbee is even more beguiling.

The story is based on The Book of 1001 Nights. We hear some of the tales that Sheherazade told the stern Sultan Shakhriar. The music opens with dialogue between the powerful, angry bass of the Sultan and the sweet arabesque of the violin, impersonating the storyteller herself. These two voices reappear later in the course of the suite, as Sheherazade introduces her new stories.

The first movement is a vivid picture of the open sea that carries the ship of Sinbad the Sailor. Rimsky-Korsakov, a naval officer himself, certainly knew the subject well. His orchestral skill is on full display: one can almost see the foam torn by the wind off the wave-tops, hear the roaring depths beneath. In the quiet moments, the Sea is beautiful and inviting, its lulling and rocking motion is tender. The colours here and in the following parts are Oriental: this is the Sea seen through Sinbad’s eyes.

The second movement is a kind of orchestral ballad. It starts with the solo woodwinds narrating their sad story over the strumming accompaniment of a harp. This story is all hostility, galloping horses, fierce battles and clashing swords. The gloomy mood is dispersed in the third movement, which tells of happy love. It is subtitled The Young Prince and the Princess. The music is built on two themes. The first is sensual and calm—probably, depicting the Prince. The second is playful and happy: probably, the Princess. This dancing theme is sprinkled with little bells and dotted rhythms.

In the last interlude between the Sultan and Sheherazade, the ruler is already in a better mood, and is impatient to hear what happens next. The finale starts with the bustling noise of the Festival in Baghdad. Amid the swirling crowds we see familiar faces from the previous parts. All of a sudden, we are back in the wide sea, aboard Sinbad’s ship. The sea is full of scary fascination, and the storm carries us to a magnificent shipwreck on the Magnet Rock. There is a return to calm, and the sweet voice of Sheherazade rises in the air for the last time over the pacific murmurs of the tamed Sultan.
And from Sultan to Saltan. Like many composers of his generation, Rimsky-Korsakov quenched his thirst for the Exotic in the Orient. He was also Number One in the painted hall of Russian musical fairytale. That’s the source of Tsar Saltan. The music was extracted from Rimsky’s opera written in 1899, on the subject from one of Pushkin’s fairytale more....

Review By Juan Manuel Parra Urbano,Ritmo,June 2011

Descriptiva síntesis de la producción orquestal más popularizada de Rimsky-Korsakov en la que encontraremos una muestra de su excepcional escritura orquestal. Sheherazade op. 35, compuesta en 1888 y basada en Las mil y una noches, es magníficamente interpretada por la Seattle Symphony, una de las orquestas más grabadas del mundo y que en su haber cuenta con doce nominaciones Grammy y dos Emmy Awards. Esta versión goza de unos planos sonoros bien estructurados, un sonido equilibrado, una magnífica claridad técnica y, por si fuera poco, un tratamiento sensual de las melodías que nos acerca aún más a las reminiscencias orientales de la obra. El violín de Maria Larionoff, de sonido envolvente, arropa cálidamente con sus intervenciones. La suite El cuento del zar Saltán nos hace un recorrido por los temas musicales principales de la ópera homónima y sorprende que el fragmento de esta ópera que más ha trascendido al gran público, conocido como El vuelo del moscardón, no fuera incluido por el autor en la suite de concierto; aunque sí se incluye en este material presentado por Naxos en la versión no excesivamente virtuosa de Gerard Schwarz.

The work is divided into four parts each movement being given a separate name. “The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship” is played at a slower pace than others I’ve heard and I like hearing it both ways. The slower pace gives certain phrasing a more distinct and precise sound which I find easier to listen to. The orchestra in the performing of the short individual solos from the flute, French horn, clarinet, oboe, and violin are nicely recorded and play it well. While it was slow I didn’t feel as if it dragged along or sound like they were laboring at all. “The Kalender Prince” begins with a wonderful solo from Larionoff very well played and recorded. The pace on this movement is somewhat faster and more what I’m use to listening to. The brass section plays well in their passages where they are featured. The same can be said about “The Young Prince and the Princess” which is a lush romantic section of the work featuring the strings. “Festival at Baghdad-The Sea,” the final movement, is one of swirling and tension with the orchestra in some parts almost at a breakneck pace. The orchestra has definitely warmed up. The finale of the movement returns us back to the original theme.

The Tale of Tsar Saltan (Suite) was written twelve years after and is an opera based on another fairy tale. The suite is of course taken from it and includes the often performed ”Flight of the Bumblebee” which is not just played by classical ensembles but all types of swing, jazz, and rock groups. The opening movement is festive and magical, the middle movement dark and mysterious, and the final movement is filled with joy and wonder. All three begin with a majestic trumpet fanfare as an introduction. The twenty minute work is definitely more than filler material and the Seattle symphony sounded well rehearsed.

Both works have to be given high marks for playing and recording. The percussion is crisp and clean sounding, the brass bright, and the strings and woodwinds smooth…I could certainly make a case that you should at least consider this one. Recommended.

The composer did give the four movements in the suite names, however, which he later withdrew. Nevertheless, they persist. “The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship” (Prelude) sounds wonderfully smooth, flowing, light, and airy under the conductorship of Gerard Schwarz and his Seattle Symphony players.  Schwarz emphasizes the lyrical qualities as well as anybody, nicely catching the beauty and rhythms of the piece. “The Kalender Prince” (Ballade) displays a pleasingly glamorous touch, the exotic Middle-Eastern motif exploited to the fullest. Moreover, concertmaster Maria Larionoff’s violin solos (she plays on a 1775 Guadagnini) as the young narrator are sweet and delightful.

Under Maestro Schwarz, “The Young Prince and Princess” (Adagio) is appropriately romantic and engaging, taking us to “The Festival at Baghdad--The Sea” (Finale), which Schwarz ensures is as thrilling as it is dashing.

The program concludes with an orchestral suite from Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan. It is brief, four movements of two-to-seven minutes each, but it carries with it the same kind of fairy-tale qualities we find in Sheherazade, if not quite so entrancing.

Recorded at Benaroya Hall, Seattle, Washington, in 2010, the audio is among Naxos’s better efforts. It is full and wide ranging, with decent impact, a broad dynamic spread, and sparkling highs.  Midrange transparency comes through nicely, and stage depth, while modest, is realistic. Although the deepest bass is somewhat light in Sheherazade, the mid-bass more than makes up for it. Besides, the deep bass comes through much better in The Tale of Tsar Saltan, which Naxos recorded a month or so later with what seems like different miking. Perhaps not in the absolute top tier of audiophile recordings, the sound, nonetheless, should disappoint no one.

I put this disc on expecting decent playing, an acceptable artistic vision, and little more. Was it prejudice? Perhaps it was the fact that recent Naxos efforts in the core repertoire have been so hit-or-miss: Pietari Inkinen’s sometimes-dreary new Sibelius cycle, Jun Märkl’s bland Daphnis et Chloé, the LSO’s similarly bland Brahms and Bartók coupling. Perhaps it was that the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and conductor Gerard Schwarz have previously teamed up (on Naxos and Delos) to provide us with the byways of obscure American (and especially Jewish-American) music: Achron, Bernstein, Diamond, Foss, Hovhaness, Schoenfield, Schuman. Perhaps it was the fact that Scheherazade is easy to play well, but hard to play memorably. So I’ll confess: I had low expectations.

They were blown away. This is spectacular, an effort in which everyone has put their best foot forward. Gerard Schwarz leads with an unerring sense of when to be expansive, when to indulge in romantic gestures, and when to step on the gas pedal and let the music explode with passion. The Seattle Symphony sounds world-class, with great woodwind soloists (especially the oboist), punchy brass, and a satisfying blend of precision and expression. The recorded engineers have hampered solo violinist Maria Larionoff with too much reverb, but they have also captured the proceedings in a full orchestral sound which starts with crackling tuba and satisfyingly present double basses and builds upward in a richly layered sound-picture. At times the orchestra sounds uncannily like an organ.

This Scheherazade is very nearly beyond praise; aside from the reverb which surrounds the violinist (but nobody else, oddly, except briefly the solo clarinet in the second movement), everything goes right. The opening movement’s seascape builds with slow, steady fervor until the climaxes reach feverish degrees of intensity. The “Kalender Prince” contrasts the lush wind solos with fierce, violent outbursts: when the central section opens, watch out. The percussionists are precisely on-rhythm and boldly project their parts. The love-scene slow movement isn’t as lavish or sensual as it could be, but it flows naturally and benefits from those superb wind soloists. (It can’t be mentioned often enough that oboist Ben Hausmann makes his every solo unforgettably tender.) And the finale, enlivened with a rumbling bass drum, starts with an atmospheric festival and concludes with Maria Larionoff’s most heartfelt solo work of all.

Mostly, it’s thrilling just to hear a performance this good in sound this good. Probably there are a dozen orchestras which have played this well in this music in past decades (though, to my mind, approaches like Ansermet’s are too fast and Haitink’s too colorless), but Naxos’ crystal-clear sound quality takes things to a new level. How satisfying it is to hear the tubas lending oomph to the opemore....

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