Taneyev & Rimsky-Korsakov Lydia Mordkovitch

• Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov: Fantasia on Two Russian Themes, Op. 33
• 1I. Allegro moderato - Tranquillo -07:30
• 2II. Lento -03:15
• 3III. Allegro animato06:41
• Sergey Ivanovich Taneyev: Suite de concert, Op. 28
• 4I. Praeludium: Grave07:50
• 5II. Gavotte: Allegro moderato05:30
• 6III. Marchen (Tale): Andantino09:48
• 7IV. Theme and Variations01:34
• 8IV. Variation 1: Allegro moderato01:17
• 9IV. Variation 2: Allegro con energico01:41
• 10IV. Variation 3: Tempo di valse02:15
• 11IV. Variation 4: Fuga doppia01:56
• 12IV. Variation 5: Presto scherzando00:55
• 13IV. Variation 6: Tempo di mazurka - Allegro con fuoco01:36
• 14IV. Final Variation and Coda04:47
• 15V. Tarantella: Presto07:46
• Total Runtime01:04:21

Info for Taneyev & Rimsky-Korsakov

Lydia Mordkovitch, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Neeme Järvi have a lustrous history of performing Russian works for Chandos, including the violin concertos of Prokofiev, Khachaturian and Shostakovich, the two concertos of the latter winning the Gramophone Award. ‘Mordkovitch’s passionate intensity combined with hushed support from the SNO at the very opening of the First Concerto set the ears tingling’, wrote Gramophone.

They return with two seldom heard works by Taneyev and Rimsky-Korsakov. The Suite de concert is a relatively late, and the only, work for violin and orchestra by Taneyev, and this recording, only its second, is currently the only one available. The work was dedicated to the great violinist Leopold Auer, whom Taneyev had known for over thirty years. Its conception represents a fusion of several different traditions – the idea of an updated baroque suite and baroque dance, the high romanticism of Schumann, and Taneyev’s mentor Tchaikovsky. But the Suite de concert is also a formidable display piece, designed to show off the technique of a violinist of the highest calibre, evident from the very opening where the soloist enters immediately with a brilliant cadenza-like passage of scales, arpeggios and trills, establishing a level of Paganini-like virtuosity from which the music seldom declines. This monumental work for the violin is here coupled with the Fantasy on Russian Themes by Rimsky-Korsakov, his only substantial work for violin and orchestra. This unusual coupling of concertante works by two great friends neatly symbolises the era of the last decades of the nineteenth century in Russia. With their great conservatories, the cities of Moscow and St Petersburg dominated Russian music, but they were divided in influence. Rimsky-Korsakov, the youngest of the ‘Mighty Five’, was a professor of composition in St Petersburg, while Taneyev, the protégé of Tchaikovsky, taught at the Moscow Conservatory. The two works give evidence of the two composers’ contrasted attitude to the past and are sure to garner interest from all Russian music enthusiasts, especially when performed, as here, by musicians of such a high pedigree.

“Lydia Mordkovitch plays throughout with a winning sincerity and burning sense of commitment…” BBC Music Magazine

Lydia Mordkovitch
Neeme Järvi, Conductor
Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Lydia Mordkovitch

Lydia Mordkovitch was born in Russia and studied at the Odessa Conservatory, then at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow where she was master pupil and assistant to David Oistrakh. She emigrated to Israel in 1974 and since 1980 has lived in Britain, appearing regularly with the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Hallé Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic and English Chamber Orchestra. She has worked with such distinguished conductors as Sir Georg Solti, Riccardo Muti, Vassily Sinaisky, Neeme Järvi, Richard Hickox, Hugo Wolff, Ian Leighton-Konig, Vernon Handley, Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Stanislav Skrowaczewski. An impressive discography of well over fifty recordings reflects her very wide repertoire, and encompasses music from the complete works for solo violin by Bach to the concertos of Shostakovich, her recording of which for Chandos won a Gramophone Award and a Diapason d’Or. Her work has twice been nominated for a Gramophone Award and has received seven Critics’ Choices; recent recordings have won major nominations or prizes across Europe. Lydia Mordkovitch has several times been named ‘Woman of the Year’ by the American Biographical Institute, and also ‘Outstanding Woman of the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries’. She is a professor and Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music in London.

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra is one of Europe’s leading symphony orchestras. Formed in 1891 as the Scottish Orchestra, the company became the Scottish National Orchestra in 1950, and was awarded Royal Patronage in 1991. The orchestra performs a busy schedule of concerts across Scotland, tours internationally to Europe’s greatest concert halls and makes frequent appearances at the BBC Proms and the Edinburgh International Festival.

Neeme Järvi

Neeme Järvi is Chief Conductor of the Residentie Orkest (The Hague), Conductor Laureate and Artistic Advisor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Music Director Emeritus of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Principal Conductor Emeritus of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, First Principal Guest Conductor of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and Conductor Laureate of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Since September 2010, Neeme Järvi will be the Music Director of Estonian National Symphony Orchestra (ERSO).

Maestro Järvi has amassed a distinguished recording repertoire that includes more than 400 discs on the Deutsche Grammophon, Chandos, BIS, Orfeo, EMI and BMG labels, as well as on the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s independent label. In addition to a number of operas, he has recorded complete symphony cycles of Wilhelm Stenhammar and Hugo Alfvén; Niels Gade and Carl Nielsen, Sibelius, Brahms and Franz Schmidt, Martinù and Dvoøák, Estonian composers Arvo Pärt and Eduard Tubin; Glazunov, Prokofiev and Shostakovich and many others. Neeme Järvi and Göteborg Symfoniker (GSO) were awarded a Swedish Grammy for their recording of Aurora, Music from the Far North, and this reflects the high standard to which the orchestra were raised under his direction.

Booklet for Taneyev & Rimsky-Korsakov