Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade Op 35 / Capriccio Espagnol Op 34

"This is the digital recording of Scheherazade we have been waiting for. It has the freshness of impact of Haitink's famous 1974 Philips version, yet as a reading it is quite different-for Mackerras is a more vibrant interpreter of Russian music and he also has the advantage of one of Telarc's very finest recordings. With the LSO balanced by Jack Renner (who gave us that famous Maazel / Cleveland record of Mussorgsky's Pictures), the acoustics of Walthamstow Town Hall are used to maximum advantage, and this is a work that must have spectacular yet vividly detailed recording to demonstrate the composer's special genius with the orchestral palette. It also demands a performance which combines virtuosity with excitement, sensuous ardour with subtlety of feeling and above all is seemingly spontaneous. Mackerras meets all these requirements admirably in a reading of great power and romantic sweep, richly coloured, yet with delicacy of texture whenever needed." (Gramophone)

Sir Charles Mackerras, praised for his ongoing Telarc recordings of the Mozart symphonies, and for his brilliant interptetation of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, now turns his attention to two orchestral masterpieces of nineteenth-century Russia.

Mackerras is Music Director of the Welshi National Opera and Principa Guest Conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, having preciously held positions with the Sydney Symphony and the English National Orchestra. A specialist in the operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, it was he who arranged Sullivan's music to create the ballet suite, Pineapple Poll.

Conductors have been testing their mettle against the powerfl climaxes and colorful orchestral tapesty of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade since the days of 78 R.P.M. Mackerras joins a long line of revered conductors-including Stokowski, Reiner, Bernstein, and Ansermet-who have committed their interpretations to recording.

The same composer's Capriccio espagnol, composed only a year earlier, is an equally spectacular orchestral showpiece. Like Ravel's Bolero, it came into being, in part, as an exercise in varied instrumentation. It won praise from no less a figure then Tchaikovsky, who called it "a masterpeice of orchestration."