Firma Melodiya presents a complete collection of symphonic heritage by Vasily Sergeyevich Kalinnikov, and outstanding and so unfairly rarely performed composer who combined various music currents of the 19th century Russian art. Vasily Kalinnikov who had to fight poverty and incurable disease for most of his short life created music that was so amazing in its lyrical spirituality, melodic richness and at times epic power.
This album features the composer's two best known symphonies and his earlier compositions, one-movement programme works and experiments for drama theatre (music to Alexei Tolstoy's play Tsar Boris).
The recordings of Kalinnikov's orchestra music were a part of the immense Anthology of Russian Symphonic Music realized by the USSR State Academic Symphony Orchestra conducted by Evgeny Svetlanov, the greatest interpreter of Russian music of the 19th – early 20th centuries. In his rendition, lyrical anxiety of Kalinnikov's melodies gained special freshness and depth, and the epic pages of his music sound with genuinely herculean strength and range.
