Rimsky Korsakov - Russian Easter Festival Overture [Ozawa-Wiener Philharmoniker]This is a very neglected overture, along with Rachmaninov's Isle Of The Dead, and Glazunov's Stenka Razin, when anyone thinks of a Russian overture, it's always Tchaikovsky's 1812, which is overplayed and overrated.
The booklet shot is great, i love colours, and the rainbow 'Scherazade' is wonderful, plus an imaginative photo by Fernando Van Teylingen.
Well the Russian Easter Festival Overture is a kaleidoscope of varied sounds and colour, the whole orchestra is used to paint a wonderful palette of noise, there's lots of stop/start and change of direction and speed, in essence the overture is like a huge set of loose variations on a couple of themes, it starts off with a soft chant by the wind [0:00-0:18], with pizzicato strings coming in [0:13+], and the violins coming in with the main melody [0:19-0:30], a beautiful and atmospheric start, which conjures up religious chanting monks, i seem to like the more robust moments, and a third of the way in the brass have a loud fanfare, while furious strings are busy in the background [5:19-5:55], likewise two thirds of the way through, low brass chant and the woodwind reply, while the same furious strings play [9:46-11:11], towards the end the Easter bells come out to play, while the growling brass chant again [12:30-13:20], i loved this overture the very first time i heard it, and it's still thrilling all these years later.
Here's Ozawa conducting this piece on YouTube.
