Rimsky-Korsakov · Scheherazade · Russian Easter Festival Overture · WP · Ozawa

Scheherazade is a work which brings the very best out of Seiji Ozawa, a colourist who likes to mould the music and make it dance. Instead of his own Boston Symphony, here he conducts the even richer-toned Vienna Philharmonic, with strings all the more sensuous in a live recording. It was made during a concert in the orchestra's home, the Musikvereinsaal in Vienna, and the tensions of a live performance consistently add compulsion to a work which can seem disconcertingly episodic. The violin solo of the leader, Rainer Honeck, from the start gives one a sense of firm purpose in the unfolding of these musical fairy-tales. Except in the love-scene of the third movement, ''The Young Prince and Princess'', Ozawa's speeds tend to be on the slow side, but he readily sustains them, building up the climaxes with satisfying weight and concentration.

The recording, forward balanced, is satisfyingly warm and full, though not ideally well-detailed. Not everyone will relish the inclusion of applause at the end of the fourth movement.
Reviewed: Gramophone 6/1994, Edward Greenfield