Search - Svetlanov, USSR Symphony Orchestra :: Rimsky-Korsakov: Opera Suites

Western audiences know Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov as a composer of orchestral showpieces such as Scheherazade. Russian audiences, on the other hand, know him equally well as an opera composer. Like many opera composers who sought to develop a wider audience, Rimsky-Korsakov mined his operas for music that would be suitable in a purely orchestral setting. The result is a series of marvelous suites ? though even some of these are real rarities! The best-known of the three suites on this album is probably Le coq d?or (The Golden Cockerel), Rimsky-Korsakov?s last opera (1909) and his biggest success outside of Russia. The Snow Maiden was Rimsky-Korsakov?s fourth opera, premiered in St. Petersburg in 1882. Later, the composer would deem it his finest work. It includes the popular "Dance of the Tumblers". Least familiar is Pan Voyevoda (1903), an opera on a Polish historical subject which makes use of some authentic folk songs. Included as an encore is Rimsky-Korsakov?s infectious military setting of the Russian folk song Dubinushka. Along with Kondrashin and Rozhdestvensky, Yevgeny Svetlanov was one of the three most famous Russian conductors of the later 20th century.