USSR State Symphony Orchestra, USSR State Radio Symphony Orchestra, Nikolai Anosov, Leo Ginzburg
Naxos · 980993 · 43 minutes
Balakirev doesn’t get nearly enough airtime considering how much of what we love in Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov actually traces back to his ideas first. The King Lear music in particular shows off that orchestral imagination — stormy, theatrical, full of colors he never quite got credit for pioneering. Anosov and Ginzburg lead these Soviet-era readings with a rawness and urgency that feels right for music this dramatic, and at 43 minutes it’s an easy, rewarding way to fill in a gap in the Russian nationalist story.
Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Choo Hoey
Marco Polo · 8220324 · 59 minutes
Balakirev never gets his due as the guy who basically kickstarted Russian nationalism in music, and this program of orchestral works makes a good case for why he deserves more than a footnote in Rimsky-Korsakov’s biography. There’s a rawness to his orchestration that his more polished successors smoothed away, and Choo Hoey and the Singapore Symphony lean into that rough-hewn energy rather than apologizing for it. At under an hour, it’s a tidy way to hear where so much of the Russian sound actually came from.
The Soviet All-Union Radio Committee Grand Symphony Orchestra, Bolshoi Theatre Symphony Orchestra, Golovanov, Nikolay
Russian Compact Disc · RCD16042 · 79 minutes
Golovanov conducts this Russian repertoire like he’s got something to prove, and honestly, the results are wild in the best way — tempos lurch, brass blares with real menace, and the whole thing feels dredged up from some older, wilder tradition of orchestral playing that’s mostly vanished now. There’s a rawness to these Soviet-era tapes that cleaner modern recordings just can’t replicate, especially in the Mussorgsky, where the orchestra sounds like it might actually tear itself apart. If you want Glinka and Rimsky-Korsakov played safe and pretty, look elsewhere; if you want to hear what these scores sound like when someone’s genuinely unhinged about them, this is your record.
Gustav Schmahl (performer), Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Horst Stein, Adolf Fritz Guhl
Berlin Classics · 0094352BC · 66 minutes
There’s a reason the Sabre Dance became a pop culture punchline for frantic energy — Khachaturian just doesn’t let up once the strings and xylophone get going, and hearing it in context with the rest of the Gayaneh score reminds you how much color and swagger surrounds that one famous minute. Horst Stein leads the Berlin Radio Symphony with real relish for the folk-inflected melodies and the brass writing that struts rather than just blares. It’s the kind of record that makes you want to dance around your kitchen, then feel slightly embarrassed, then do it again anyway.
