Il conseguimento del II premio (I non assegnato) al Concorso dell’ARD di Monaco nel 1993 e l’immediato invito del Cidim a far parte dei gruppi di punta scelti dall’Italia per Nuove Carriere nel 1994, promuovono ben presto il gruppo a un livello di visibilità e qualità artistica salutate unanimemente da vivissimo interesse. Il Bibiena da allora effettua centinaia di concerti in Italia, Francia, Austria, Germania, Sudamerica e molti altri paesi.

A slightly curious compilation (two Russian performances dating from 1962, one English from 1976) but an attractive one, and very good value. I had not heard the Gabrieli's Tchaikovsky before, and liked it a great deal: properly chamber-scale, in colour as well as tone of voice, and nice underlining of the lyricism in even Tchaikovsky's most exuberant pages.

The Hungarians of the Haydn Quartet have the D-Major Quarte will in hand, playing with consistent firm impulse, and realizing full color potential.

Prince Igor is an epic opera,with its wonderful crowd scenes and intimate love music and although it can at times appear more a patchwork of scenes than a coherent work it does contain wonderful music which moves along with great vigour and excitement. This version with mainly Bulgarian singers is most enjoyable with Tchakarov bringing out the dramatic tension,vivid melody and colour with finesse and passion,the orchestra responding admirably to all the nuances in the score,the chorus too so important in this work give an outstanding performance in the Polovtsian music.

Sergey Taneyev was a distinguished pianist and influential educator, succeeding Tchaikovsky as professor at the Moscow Conservatory and counting Scriabin and Rachmaninov among his students. The Piano Trio Op. 22 is a demonstration of Taneyev’s technical skill, filled with subtle use of counterpoint, lyrical expressiveness and virtuoso fireworks. Alexander Borodin was a leading member of the ‘Mighty Handful’, and his incomplete but brilliant Piano Trio was seen by Glinka as setting a precedent in the genre for its deeply Russian character.

These readings are sensitive and beautifully, thoughtfully paced. The phrasing is totally idiomatic, too. There is a tenedency to bend phrases like taffy in Borodin. Gergiev, however, has a deep understanding of the structure of these works, which he conveys with a wonderful feeling for dynamics (typically Russian in the brass) and light and shade. This was an early Gergiev/Rotterdam Philharmonic collaboration, but the orchestra already seems totally attuned to the conductor's artistry.

One of Germany’s most prominent pianists, Alexander Krichel from Hamburg, has brought together a couple of heavyweights for his first album with Berlin Classics. He combines the “Pictures at an Exhibition” by Modest Mussorgsky, a central work of the piano literature, with a rarely heard gem by the Romanian composer George Enescu. Enescu’s Second Piano Suite enhances the formal language of the Baroque with Romantic and Impressionist tim-bres, and entrances the listener with a rich palette of tone colours. To round off the pro-gramme, Alexander Krichel plays another work by a composer from Russia’s “mighty hand-ful”, the Nocturne from the Petite Suite by Alexander Borodin.

Musical treasures from great Russian composers, ideally interpreted by the Russian conductor Samuel Friedmann with philharmonic orchestras of his mother country that represent the great music tradition of Russia.

This Edition presents the “Magnificent Seven” and the “encore” in optimum technical quality. In the mid-Fifties of the last century, with the Cold War freezing relations between East and West, the English record label Decca decided to record a series of Russian operas with the Belgrade National Opera. Belgrade in the Yugoslavia of those days under Josip Tito was more open to “the West” than the Warsaw Pact countries gathered under the wing of the Soviet Union. The deal had been struck by former Decca manager and successful promoter of east European folklore in the USA, record executive Gerald Severn. Thanks to his excellent contacts, Decca director Arthur Haddy eventually obtained a visa and travelled to Belgrade to find a suitable recording venue, which turned out to be the cinema in the House of Culture in the city centre.

Though this set does not include Borodin's lovely string quartets, it contains more than enough to please the most ardent Borodin enthusiast. The symphonies are so well played that no other versions I've heard can compare. One assessment of Borodin's music I once read made reference to his "latent muscularity". The timing and pace of the symphonies does complete justice to that quality. Also very apparent in these works is the orchestral brightness unique to the man's work.

A true celebration, ushering in the New Year with one of the finest orchestras and greatest conductors in the world. The 2007 Gala from Berlin features the Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle in Alexander Borodin's Second Symphony, a richly lyrical work of immense poetic grandeur and fairy-tale magic, in a programme that also includes one of the greatest classical hits ever: Modest Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition'.

Valery Gergiev directs the Kirov Opera and Ballet in this magnificent 1998 production of Borodin’s "Prince Igor", presented in a new Mariinsky Theatre performing edition and featuring Mikhail Fokine’s original choreography in the famous Polovtsian Dances. Its four acts tell of the struggle between the Russians and Polovtsian nomads, of Prince Igor’s capture and escape from his noble opponent, Khan Konchak, and of love between Igor’s son, Vladimir, and Konchak’s daughter, Konchakovna.

Whenever the Borodin Quartet notches up an anniversary, so too does its cellist (and so in 2005, while the ensemble marks 60 years as what the Russians call the Quartet named Borodin , we also toast Valentin Berlinsky on his 80th birthday). This is very much as it should be: Valentin Berlinsky is both patriarch and soul of the quartet. As anchorman throughout of the group which turned to the Soviet authorities for its present name in 1955, Berlinsky has lived through many changes of personnel in the early years, guided the quartet through difficult times at home and on countless tours, and still imparts his ineffably cultured tones to its latest incarnation.

An amateur cellist, the composer of Prince Igor was the only one of the Group of Five to have written some ten chamber works for his personal pleasure in keeping with the laws of Germanic rhetoric - to Balakirev's great displeasure. One of them is a pure masterpiece: his Quartet in D, featuring an irresistible Nocturne, which has been played round the world in various arrangements.