Search - Magad, Barenboim, Chicago Symphony Orchestra :: Rimsky-korsakov: Scheherazade, Tsar Saltan

How rare--a completely personal Scheherazade

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 02/23/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The splenetic reviews below are misplaced. This excellent-sounding, extremely well played Scheherazade is trying to achieve something different. Barenboim slows down the tempo and plays for atmosphere to remind us of the Arabian Nights and the exoticism of Rimsky's source. This thrice-familiar work, almost totally relegated to pops concerts nowadays, is a masterpiece of orchestration. Barenbim makes us hear that; not a single bar is routine or cliche. As for the complaints below that he's being lethargic, I don't find that's so: slow as the tempos are, they have vibrancy and inner life.



I'm a bit amazed at myself, that I an moved by this Scheherazade since Barenboim rarely convinces me with his ideas. But there you are--a very original, intriguing interpreatation. As a bonus we get rare orchestral excerpts from Rimsky's opera, Tsar Sultane.

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