Romantic Russia

Romantic Russia is an excellent collection of Russian music brilliantly conducted by Georg Solti. The Tchaikovsky Second Symphony was probably added to increase the playing time of the SACD despite its negligible musical value. Solti’s interpretation is pretty good, but the orchestral performance is marred by some poor brass playing, especially in the fourth movement. Mussorgsky’s Khovanschina Prelude and Night on Bare Mountain plus the Overture and Polovtsian Dances from Borodin’s Prince Igor are all very well played in characteristically exciting fashion by Solti, though I prefer Antal Doráti’s Polovtsian Dances on a sensational Mercury Russian collection. The principal reason to get this SACD is Solti’s amazing interpretation of Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila Overture. The orchestral performance with Solti’s extremely fast tempo is in a class by itself. The combination of Solti’s conducting and the London Symphony Orchestra’s playing is sensational, but the ungimmicky audiophile sound will make this a definite demonstration piece for your sound system. This is a near-perfect presentation of the orchestra playing in a concert hall. In fact, the Ruslan and Lyudmila Overture is so good that it alone is worth the price of this SACD for its perhaps unexpected musical and sonic values.