2012 Great Russian Symphonies 10CD Box Sets Naxos Records naxos.com / Review The word ‘symphony’ is used to describe an extended orchestral composition in Western classical music. By the eighteenth century the Italianate opera sinfonia—musical interludes between operas or concertos - had assumed the structure of three contrasting movements, and it is this form that is often considered as the direct forerunner of the orchestral symphony. With the rise of established professional orchestras, the symphony assumed a more prominent place in concert life between 1790 and 1820 until it eventually came to be regarded by many as the yardstick by which one would measure a composer’s achievement. The symphony came late to Russia. The first attempts at a Russian Nationalist symphony were made in the late nineteenth-century by Balakirev and his acolytes, Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov as well as by Tchaikovsky, whose symphonies (despite his European leanings) have a distinctly Russian flavour. In their wake followed numerous composers, from Glazunov to Myaskovsky, similarly instilling their music with the melodies of their homeland. In the years that followed Russian politics had an unmistakable impact on the Russian symphonists, as Rachmaninov and Prokofiev (among others) went into exile whilst composers such as Shostakovich vented their political frustrations through the medium of music - his Leningrad Symphony being a prime example. CD01-CD05 + Covers Box 371MB (4 Part) + 272MB (1 Part) CD06-CD10 362MB (4 Part) + 275MB (1 Part) CD01 Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 / Borodin: Symphony No. 2 Peter Il’yich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) • Symphony No 4 in F minor, Op 36 Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra / Conductor Adrian Leaper -------- Alexander Porfir’yevich Borodin (1833-1887) • Symphony No 2 in B minor Seattle Symphony Orchestra / Conductor Gerard Schwarz CD02 Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 / Romeo and Juliet Peter Il’yich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) Symphony No 5 in E minor, Op 64 • Romeo And Juliet Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra • Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor Antoni Wit • Conductor Adrian Leaper CD03 Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 / 1812 Overture Peter Il’yich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) Symphony No 6 in B minor, Op 74 'Pathétique' • 1812 Overture Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra • Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor Antoni Wit • Conductor Adrian Leaper CD04 Prokofiev: Symphony No.5 / Myaskovsky: Symphony No. 25 Sergey Prokofiev (1891-1953) • Symphony No 5 in B flat major, Op 100 Ukraine National Symphony Orchestra / Conductor Theodore Kuchar -------- Nikolay Yakovlevich Myaskovsky (1881-1950) • Symphony No 25 in D flat major, Op 69 Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra / Conductor Dmitry Yablonsky CD05 Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 / Prokofiev: Symphony No.1 Dmitry Shostakovich (1906-1975) • Symphony No 5 in D minor, Op 47 Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra / Conductor Vasily Petrenko -------- Sergey Prokofiev (1891-1953) • Symphony No 1 in D major, Op 25, ‘Classical’ Ukraine National Symphony Orchestra / Conductor Theodore Kuchar CD06 Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7 Dmitry Shostakovich (1906-1975) • Symphony No 7 in C Major, Op 60 'Leningrad' Russian Philharmonic Orchestra / Conductor Dmitry Yablonsky[/i][/color] CD07 Rimsky-Korsakov: Symphony No. 2 / Sheherazade Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) Symphony No 2, Op 9 (Symphonic Suite), 'Antar' St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra / Conductor Andre Anichanov -------- Sheherazade Maria Larionoff - violin • Seattle Symphony Orchestra / Conductor Gerard Schwarz CD08 Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 2 / The Rock Sergey Rachmaninov (1873-1943) Symphony No 2 in E minor, Op 27 • Fantaisie, Op 7 'The Rock' (Utyos) Ireland National Symphony Orchestra / Conductor Alexander Anissimov CD09 Scriabin: Symphony No.3 / Le Poème de Iextase Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) • Symphony No 3 in C Minor, Op 43 'Le Poème Divin' Moscow Symphony Orchestra / Conductor Igor Golovschin -------- La Poeme de l'extase (The Poem of Extasy), Op. 54, 'Symphony No. 4' Dmitri Lokalenkov - trumpet • Moscow Symphony Orchestra / Conductor Igor Golovschin CD10 Glazunov: Symphony No.6 / Kalinnikov: Symphony No.1 Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov (1865-1936) • Symphony No 6 in C minor, Op 58 Moscow Symphony Orchestra / Conductor Alexander Anissimov -------- Vasily Sergeyevich Kalinnikov (1866-1901) • Symphony No 1 in G minor Ukraine National Symphony Orchestra / Conductor Theodore Kuchar