"A piece of music having a fanciful nature" – that's how a music dictionary interprets the genre of capriccio (or caprice). However, in Russian music, there has been a tradition of symphonic capriccio, an orchestral piece based on material of national, 'exotic' folklore.
Mikhail Glinka, the founder of the Russian classical music, returned from Spain and created a "brilliant capriccio on a theme of the Jota Aragonesa", in which he developed the famous theme of the Spanish dance in an original way (Liszt and ravel also cited it in their 'Spanish' compositions). Forty years later, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov composed a five-movement Spanish Capriccio, which became along with his Sheherazade the composer's highest achievement in symphonic music enchanting its listeners with a resplendent, virtuosic orchestration.
Tchaikovsky's Capriccio Italien was composed in 1880 under the impression of the Roman carnival and breathes with sunny delights of Italian love melodies and dances. Rachmaninoff's Capriccio on Gypsy Themes, one of the composer's first works (1894), has something in common with Tchaikovsky's piece. Similar to his first opera Aleko, it reflects Rachmaninoff's love for gypsy signing.
This peculiar side of the Russian symphonic school is featured through splendid performances of the USSR State Orchestra conducted by Evgeny Svetlanov, a recognized interpreter of Russian music of the 19th century.
