When Alexander Borodin (1833–1887) was composing his Petite Suite for piano, he managed to pronounce on not just the individuality of his language, but also the novelty of his approach to accomplishing an artistic task. The first and the most extensive part of the suite Au couvent with its chimes, a stern and concentrated tune, very calm in the beginning and then ascending to its dramatic climax, reminds of some of the pages from the operas by Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Borodin himself. Next to it, there are three pieces taking the listener to a whole different sphere – Intermezzo and two Mazurkas which intonationally sound like something remotely resembling Borodin's oriental pages so unexpectedly and so naturally flowing into a habitual mazurka pitch.
Borodin's individuality is specially felt in the last three pieces. It shows in a songful and very Russian in its nature melody of Rêverie, in a distinctly rhymed tune of Serenade, which reminds of the Spanish pages of Russian music, and finally in wonderful lyricism of Nocturne.
Borodin's Petite Suite on this album sounds as it was instrumentated by Alexander Glazunov. The maestro dearly loved and understood the soul of Borodin's music, and thanks to his hand it gained new colours.
The orchestral version of Petite Suite was premiered in St. Petersburg on October 28th, 1889, and conducted by Rimsky-Korsakov. It was seen as a tribute to the memory of its author from his close friends and comrades who breathed new life into his piano pieces.
The opera and symphony works by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) are closely connected through their common music thinking. Much in the programme aspects of the composer's symphonic opuses and picturesque music inspired by popular poetry reminds of operatic concepts.
The role of the orchestra in his opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan is quite significant. The symphonic bits and, primarily, interludes are very graphic. Each scene is opened with brilliant and festive sound of fanfare; the sequence of symphonic fragments is directly included in the action of the opera. The musical scenes to the opera combined by the author in a suite create a magically fantastic colouring which amazes with the lustre and refinement of orchestral palette.
The symphonic scene The Three Wonders precedes the last scene of the opera. Its epigraph includes verses 'based on Pushkin' describing a magical city of Ledenets and its wonders. As a matter of fact, this musical scene includes four not three wonders: apart from the squirrel, thirty-three bogatyrs and the Swan-Bird, there is also an image of Ledenets (a mysteriously sounding three muted trumpets).
Throughout his life, Mily Balakirev (1837–1910) was a devoted and enthusiastic admirer of Chopin's work and personality. The composer took an active part in immortalizing the name of the great Polish musician, in many ways drew the public attention to make Chopin's birthplace in Żelazowa Wola a memorial museum and solicited the erection of the monument to the musician.
Being a brilliant pianist, Balakirev played a lot of Chopin to the audience's delight. "His enthuasiasm goes straight to the heart! How clearly Chopins himself
speaks in him!", wrote the Gazeta Polska after a charity concert Balakirev played for the Chopin scholarship.
The composer dedicated his Chopin Suite in D minor to the erection of Chopin's monument in Warsaw. The composer wrote about his suite: "No. 1 – Preambule has been based on an es-moll etude transposed into d-moll; No. 2 – Mazurka has been compiled from several Chopin's mazurkas; the basis of No. 3 – Intermezzo is a g-moll nocturne; Finale is the third cis-moll scherzo transposed into d-moll."
Evgeny Svetlanov (1928–2002) was an outstanding conductor, composer, pianist, People's Artist of the USSR, author of the project "Anthology of Russian Music." Finished the Gnesins State Pedagogical Institute of Music and later graduated from the Moscow Conservatory where he specialized in composition (class of professor Y. Shaporin) and conducting (class of professor A. Gauk). For several years, Svetlanov worked for the All-Union Radio Orchestra, and then headed the Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre of the USSR. From 1965 to 1998, he was an artistic director and chief conductor of the USSR State Symphony Orchestra of the USSR. In 2006, the USSR State Symphony Orchestra was named after Evgeny Svetlanov
