The Leading Classical Music Label Direct To You

Read reviews, listen to the music, and purchase the CD Orchestral Spectacular

Customer Service Toll Free 866.489.4152

Music AND Flowers. The Perfect Gifts.

Spend $50 or more on NaxosDirect and we'll give you a $10 coupon for 1800Flowers.com family of stores. Offer ends Feb. 12th. Need suggestions? Click here

Flash 9 required. Click to download.

Narrow your search
with our Music Browser

Classical Music

        Ballet
        Chamber Music
        Choral
        Concertos
        Film Music
        Folk Legends
        Instrumental
        Musicals
        Opera / Operetta
        Orchestral
        Vocal

Jazz

Jazz Contemporary
Jazz Icons

New Age

Wind Band

World

        Ballad
        Bhuddist
        Chinese Music
        Classical (World)
        Early Music (World)
        Folk
        Gamelan
        Gypsy
        Hindustani
        Jazz (World)
        Klezmer
        Sufi
        Vocal (World)
        World

Special Offers:

Free MP3 Downloads

Catalogs

Internship Opportunities

Celebrating Black History

Grammy Winners on Sale

Masters of American Music

Valentine�s Day Special

Clearance

Penguin Guide

200 Essential Recordings

Recently Released

Upcoming Releases

SACD

DVD

        Ballet DVD
        Classical Concert
        Classical Documentary
        Dance Documentary
        Opera DVD
        Pop/Rock Concert

Audio Books

        Anthologies / Collections
        Arts
        Biographies
        Children's Classics
        Classic Fiction
        Great Epics and Tales
        History
        Junior Classic Fiction
        Junior History
        Literature
        Music Biographies
        Music Education
        Non-Fiction
        Philosophy
        Plays - Others
        Plays - Shakespeare
        Poetry
        Religion
        Samplers
        Sports
        Wine Guide

NaxosDirect Podcasts

Video Librarian Reviews

Labels

Naxos Label

        Naxos American Classics
        Naxos Best Of...
        Naxos Box Sets
        Naxos Cinema Classics
        Naxos Classics
        Naxos DVD
        Naxos DVD-Audio
        Naxos International
        Naxos Jazz
        Naxos Limited Edition
        Naxos Milken Archives
        Naxos Night Music
        Naxos Opera
        Naxos Orchestral
        Naxos Special Release
        Naxos Wind Band Classics
        Naxos World

Composers

Conductors

Ensembles

Orchestras

Choirs

Artists

Instruments

Producers

Orchestral Spectacular

Home

Classical Music

Orchestral

View large image

Total playing time: 00:58:14

$8.99 (CD)

In Stock - Usually ships within 24 hours.

Link to this CD Link to this page

Orchestral Spectacular Spain exercised a curious fascination over the nationalist composers of the nineteenth century, with a particular appeal in Russia, a...

Read more about this recording

Orchestral Spectacular

Spain exercised a curious fascination over the nationalist composers of the nineteenth century, with a particular appeal in Russia, a country that was finding again its own identity in literature and music, after the Westernisation initiated by Peter the Great.

The French might be forgiven for a certain preoccupation with the very different traditional music of their geographical neighbours. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries offer various examples of this interest, from Saint-Sa�ns, Lalo and Bizet to Ravel and Debussy. Emmanuel Chabrier, like his Russian contemporaries, was intended by his family for a securer career than any that music could offer. He showed exceptional ability as a pianist as a child, but studied law and took employment in the Ministry of the Interior in Paris. It was not until 1880, eleven years after the death of his parents, that he became a full-time musician. His colourful orchestral piece Espana was written in the following year, its inspiration a visit to Spain. It has always enjoyed popularity, a success not shared by the dramatic works by which the composer set considerable store.

Rimsky-Korsakov's famous Capriccio espagnol began as a Fantasia on Spanish Themes for violin and orchestra, but was eventually completed in 1887 in its present form. Rimsky-Korsakov belonged to the musical generation after Glinka and once he had relinquished his original career as a naval officer devoted himself to the cause of Russian music with a professionalism that some of his contemporaries lacked. He was one of the five nationalist composers, Stasov's Mighty Handful, under the influence of Balakirev, and possessed particular ability in orchestration, a gift he was later to exercise in removing apparent crudities from the music of Mussorgsky and in completing what Borodin had left undone. He stressed that the brilliant Capriccio espagnol was intended as a display of orchestral colour, an aim which it achieves admirably.

The origin of the orchestral piece Night on the Bare Mountain

lies in music written for a play, The Witch, by a friend from Mussorgsky's time in the army. The composer later had the idea of writing an opera on a story by Gogol, St. John's Eve. In 1867, dismissed for the moment from the civil service, he found the leisure to write an orchestral work based on the material he had composed to depict a witches' sabbath, held on the eve of the Feast of St. John, at mid-summer, on Bare Mountain.

Mussorgsky was to make use of the same music five years later for an abortive stage-work, in which he collaborated with Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin and Cui.

As seems usual on these occasions, the witches' celebration starts with relative decorum, before proceeding to more characteristic activities.

Throughout Mussorgsky derives his inspiration from Russian folk-song, an element never far from the musical idiom he employed. Borodin's professional career in chemistry left him relatively little time for music. His first symphony had occupied him intermittently between 1862 and 1867, while the second, started in 1869, reached its final form twelve years later. From 1870 onwards he worked at his opera Prince Igor, for which Stasov had sent him a scenario, writing music and words piece-meal, but without ever providing himself with a full libretto. At his death in 1887 the opera was still unfinished and was to be filled out by Rimsky-Korsakov and his young colleague Glazunov as best they could.

The Polovtsian Dances make up a sequence of choral dances in the second act of the opera, where they provide entertainment for the Tartar Khan's prisoners, Prince Igor and his son. The opening dance was orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov and the remaining dances by the composer, all making use of rhythms of enormous vitality and melodic material that suggests vividly the scene in all its barbarous energy.

Ravel wrote the orchestral tour de force Bolero in 1928 for the dancer Ida Rubinstein, describing it on one occasion as an orchestrated crescendo and on another as "une blague" and yet again as "vide de musique". It is based on the insistent drum rhythm of an invented Spanish dance and won immediate popularity.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was created by Sir Thomas Beecham three weeks before its first concert, which took place in the Davis Hall, Croydon, on 15th September, 1946. The orchestra was initially associated with the Royal Philharmonic Society and involved in the Society's subscription concerti series, later earning for itself the title "Royal", when this association came to an end. Beecham gave his last concert with the orchestra in 1960 and was succeeded by Rudolf Kempe, who became principal conductor on Beecham's death the following year. The orchestra has from the beginning been involved in recording, with a major international reputation supported by foreign tours and by association with conductors and soloists of the greatest distinction.

Adrian Leaper

Adrian Leaper was appointed Assistant Conductor to Stanislaw Skrowaczewski of the Halle Orchestra in 1986, and has since then enjoyed an increasingly busy career, with engagements at home and throughout Europe.Born in 1953, Adrian Leaper studied at the Royal Academy of Music and was for a number of years co-principal French horn in the Philharmonia Orchestra, before turning his attention exclusively to conducting. He has been closely involved with the Naxos and Marco Polo labels and has been consequently instrumental in introducing elements of English repertoire to Eastern Europe. His numerous recordings include a complete cycle of Sibelius symphonies for Naxos.

Disc 1

Espana

(more info)

Performed by: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Composed by: Emmanuel Chabrier
Conducted by: Adrian Leaper
Recording date: 7-10 January 1991
Produced by: Culverhouse, Brian

Espana - 6:05

Capriccio Espagnol

(more info)

Performed by: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Composed by: Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov
Conducted by: Adrian Leaper
Recording date: 7-10 January 1991
Produced by: Culverhouse, Brian

Capriccio Espagnol - 16:00

St. John's Night on Bald Mountain

(more info)

Performed by: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Composed by: Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky
Conducted by: Adrian Leaper
Recording date: 7-10 January 1991
Produced by: Culverhouse, Brian

Night on the Bare Mountain - 11:22

Prince Igor: Polovtsian Dances

(more info)

Performed by: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Composed by: Alexander Porfir'yevich Borodin
Conducted by: Adrian Leaper
Recording date: 7-10 January 1991
Produced by: Culverhouse, Brian

Prince Igor: Polovtsian Dances - 11:13

Bolero

(more info)

Performed by: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Composed by: Maurice Ravel
Conducted by: Adrian Leaper
Recording date: 7-10 January 1991
Produced by: Culverhouse, Brian

Bolero - 13:34

Reviews

Be the first to review this title

FREE SHIPPING on orders
of 5 items or more!

Earn Naxos Rewards Points by opening an account and buying your favorite music today! Create your account here.

See all of our great site features here.

Flash 9 required. Click to download.

Composer(s):
Borodin, Alexander Porfir'yevich; Chabrier, Emmanuel; Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich; Ravel, Maurice; Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolay Andreyevich

Conductor(s):
Leaper, Adrian

Orchestra(s):
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Label: Naxos Classics
UPC: 730099550123
Item Number: 8550501
Release Date: Jun 18, 1991