The fiery piano work Islamey and some orchestral pieces are all that is known of Russian composer Mily Balakirev in the West, but these Romances -- short art songs with a personal, sometimes over-the-top romantic expression -- are quite familiar in Russophone areas, even among general listeners. They date mostly from the very beginning and very end of Balakirev's career, with the first of this two-disc U.S. release devoted to the former and the second to the latter. The style remains generally consistent throughout. ...
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The fiery piano work Islamey and some orchestral pieces are all that is known of Russian composer Mily Balakirev in the West, but these Romances -- short art songs with a personal, sometimes over-the-top romantic expression -- are quite familiar in Russophone areas, even among general listeners. They date mostly from the very beginning and very end of Balakirev's career, with the first of this two-disc U.S. release devoted to the former and the second to the latter. The style remains generally consistent throughout. Balakirev suffered a major breakdown in the 1870s, after which he became immersed in an idiosyncratic and fundamentalist brand of Orthodox worship, reportedly refusing to kill insects, even bedbugs. He returned to composing, but he was no longer in the forefront of Russian nationalism. The songs deserve to be better known, and this release, with ideal notes by accompanist Yuri Serov, makes a good introduction to them for the target non-Russian audience; the texts are given in transliterated...
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