Rimsky-Korsakov · Scheherazade · Russian Easter Festival Overture · WP · Ozawa
Rimsky-Korsakov · Scheherazade · Russian Easter Festival Overture · WP · Ozawa
APE+CUE 250 MB | MP3 HQ (tracks) 109 MB | Easy CD-DA 12 | Booklet | No Log | 1994
Wiener Philharmoniker · Seiji 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
CD
Scheherazade, Op. 35
Russian Easter Festival Overture, Op. 36
1. Rimsky-Korsakov - The sea and Sindbad's ship (9:52)
2. Rimsky-Korsakov - The story of the Calendar Prince (11:34)
3. Rimsky-Korsakov - The young prince and the young priness (9:21)
4. Rimsky-Korsakov - Festival at Bagdad - The sea - The ship goes to pieces against a rock surmounted by a bronze warrior (The shipwreck) (12:33)
5. Rimsky-Korsakov - Russion Easter, Op. 36 - Overture on sacred Russian themes (14:58)
2. Rimsky-Korsakov - The story of the Calendar Prince (11:34)
3. Rimsky-Korsakov - The young prince and the young priness (9:21)
4. Rimsky-Korsakov - Festival at Bagdad - The sea - The ship goes to pieces against a rock surmounted by a bronze warrior (The shipwreck) (12:33)
5. Rimsky-Korsakov - Russion Easter, Op. 36 - Overture on sacred Russian themes (14:58)