Borodin / Mussorgsky / Rimsky-Korssakoff – A Russian Festival

Borodin / Mussorgsky / Rimsky-Korsakov – A Russian Festival

“A Russian Festival” brings together four spectacular examples of 19th-century Russian orchestral music, featuring works by Alexander Borodin, Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The programme spans 1867–1888, offering a concise introduction to the vivid orchestration, folk influences, dramatic storytelling and distinctly Russian character of the late Romantic period.

The earliest work here is Mussorgsky’s Night On The Bare Mountain, composed in 1867. Inspired by Russian legends surrounding a witches’ gathering on St John’s Eve, the piece is one of the earliest Russian examples of the symphonic poem and has become one of Mussorgsky’s most recognisable orchestral works.

Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances comes from his unfinished opera Prince Igor. Borodin worked on the opera intermittently for around eighteen years, with the dances dating from the 1860s and 1870s. The opera was eventually completed after his death by colleagues including Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov, with the Polovtsian Dances becoming a hugely popular concert showpiece in their own right.

Rimsky-Korsakov contributes two of his most celebrated orchestral works. Capriccio Espagnol, Op. 34 was composed in 1887, drawing on Spanish melodies and rhythms for a dazzling display of orchestral colour, while Russian Easter Overture, Op. 36 was composed in 1887–1888 and dedicated to the memory of Borodin and Mussorgsky.

With its combination of Russian Romanticism, dramatic orchestration, folk-inspired melodies and virtuosic orchestral writing, A Russian Festival is an appealing collection for listeners exploring Borodin, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, as well as fans of late-19th-century Russian classical music and orchestral repertoire.

Tracklist

1. Polovtsian Dances From 'Prince Igor'
2. Russian Easter Overture, Op. 36
3. A Night On The Bare Mountain
4. Capriccio Espagnol, Op. 34