Rimsky-Korsakov: Piano Concerto; The Tale of Tsar Saltan Suite; Capriccio espagnol; Sadko; Russian Easter Festival Overture

COMPOSERS: Rimsky-Korsakov
LABELS: BIS
WORKS: Piano Concerto; The Tale of Tsar Saltan Suite; Capriccio espagnol; Sadko; Russian Easter Festival Overture
PERFORMER: Noriko Ogawa (piano); Malaysian PO/Kees Bakels
CATALOGUE NO: CD-1387

In a well-planned sequel to their first BIS disc of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sheherazade and Antar, Kees Bakels and the Malaysian Philharmonic take us on a lively if occasionally bumpy ride through the composer’s finest shorter scores. The most familiar works come up freshest. Bakels reveals first-rate conducting technique as he negotiates the exhilarating tempo-changes towards the end of the Capriccio espagnol and pulls off a rather more unexpected coup at the end of the Russian Easter Festival Overture, broadening to let us know that Christ is truly risen with the brass’s last and most resplendent orthodox chant. He’s a little too impatient, though, with the bewitching central seascape of Tsar Saltan (where the famous bumble-bee flight should have been presented as an encore to the three orchestral pictures of the official suite, not an interlude between the second and the last). And, fine as this self-styled ‘multicultural and international orchestra’ already is, the brilliant recording can’t conceal a brittleness to the violins as the rhapsody of underwater minstrel Sadko falls a little short of its bel canto. Brittle, too, is the tone of Noriko Ogawa’s accomplished flurries in the odd little Piano Concerto – short in length but hardly small in scale as the pianist rampages double-octaves against a limited supply of thematic material. Only magisterial Richter – currently unavailable – has made real sense of this, so Ogawa will do as well as several other recent contenders if you want to investigate the Concerto. A slightly more sophisticated glitter in the famous showpieces remains the prerogative of Neeme Järvi on a two-CD set which also gives you the symphonies for less than the price of this single disc. David Nice