Johann Strauss II: Furstin Ninetta – (Complete Operetta) – Several Soloists – Ninetta Chorus – Stockholm Strauss Orchestra – Valeria Csanyi (Cond.) – NAXOS 8.660227-28 (103 mins)
Whenever the name of Johann Strauss (the son) comes up, one immediately tends to associate him only with the hundreds of popular waltzes and other dance pieces that he wrote.
But the composer was also a man of the stage, and by the time of his death in 1899, aged 74, he had 15 operettas and an opera to his credit. Premiered in Vienna on January 10, 1893, Princess Ninetta was a considerable success, and both critics and audiences had words of high praise for it.
The 12th of Strauss’s works in the genre, the Princess had a very encouraging run of 76 performances, and a dozen other theatres in the Austrian Empire also took the work into their repertoire.
Unfortunately, the last known production of the work was in 1905, and 102 years had to pass for the Princess to awake from its unjust slumber with this 2007 Swedish staging.
All Strauss operettas have their own peculiar character, and are definitely something more than just a sequence of sparkling melodies and dance tunes. In spite of that, the score of Furstin Ninetta has echoes from previous stage endeavours such as Die Fledermaus, Der Carneval in Rom and A Night in Venice, among others.
The story unfolds in a fashionable beach hotel in Sorrento at the end of the 19th century and has the usual love escapades and intrigues that are a staple diet of such plots. In the end, though, everything turns out to everyone’s satisfaction, Ninetta included.
The music is a continuous stream of appealing and quite dazzling sounds, and the composer has once again succeeded in spinning together a web of delightful melodies.
The New Pizzicato Polka remains one of its more popular excerpts. The performance has an enchanting aura about it, and although the piece has remained neglected for more than a century, the whole cast oozes confidence and gaiety throughout. Knock-out stuff that should not be missed.
Glazunov: Serenades Nos 1 & 2 – Overtures on Three Greek Themes Nos 1 & 2 – Triumphal March, op. 40 – Chopiniana, op. 46 – Moscow Symphony Orchestra – Vladimir Ziva (Cond.) – NAXOS 8.555048 (70 mins)
Alexander Glazunov (1865- 1936) can be regarded as one of Russia’s greatest composers both during the 19th and 20th centuries. His career not only spanned great political and cultural changes, but he was also in constant competition with such greats as Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov (with whom he struck a real friendship) and Balakirev on the one hand, and Scriabin, Stravinsky and Prokofiev on the other.
He was a nationalist and romantic at heart, and his music remained entrenched in the old traditions. He wrote a huge amount of orchestral music that includes eight completed symphonies, three ballets, piano and violin concertos, several suites and a myriad of fantasies, marches and overtures.
A truly entertaining CD, full of enjoyable melodies
He has also a substantial amount of solo piano and chamber music, of which the string quartets are considered a major contribution to Russian chamber music. Glazunov earned loads of money and fame during the first part of his life, but with the onset of Communism, the composer was finally forced to leave his country and settle abroad.
His last years were wrecked by alcoholism and debts, and he died a lonely man in Paris in 1936. The works on this disc date from the earlier part of his career, with the two overtures from the Greek Themes reflecting the contemporary fascination in Russian music for the exoticism of Eastern European countries.
The two short serenades are attractive little pieces displaying Glazunov’s facility to compose beautiful music with very little material.
The Triumphal March makes imaginative use of the famous American song John Brown’s Body, while the Chopiniana Suite is an orchestral arrangement of some famous Chopin pieces. Premiered by Rimsky-Korsakov, the suite was eventually turned into a ballet, better known outside Russia as Les Sylphides.
This is a truly entertaining CD, full of enjoyable melodies punctuated by some lush orchestration and masterly harmonies which should go down extremely well with all music lovers. Notes are average, but sound and presentation are first-rate.
These CDs were made available for review by D’Amato record shop of 98/99 St John Street, Valletta.