Orchestre de la Suisse Romande/Yamada
Russian Dances
Pentatone
ULTIMATELY – and only eventually – I decided to recommend this collection of Russian dances featuring performances by the respected Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and its principal guest conductor Kazuki Yamada. The absolute core of the repertoire they perform – and it is all very well played indeed – is in fact Glazunov’s two charming, and very little-played Concert Waltzes, Shostakovich’s completely riotous, football-inspired ballet The Golden Age, which is sensationally-played and characterised with the imagery bouncing off the park, and Stravinsky’s outrageous Circus Polka from 1942, “composed for a young elephant”, the animal in fact being a several-ton big wee star at Barnum and Bailey’s Circus. This is all brilliant stuff, superbly performed, with Yamada firmly in command of Shostakovich’s team and nobody sent to the sin bin, and of Stravinsky’s pre-delinquent heffalump, which trumpets Schubert’s Marche Militaire in excitement.
It’s all preceded, however by an interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Suite which remains resolutely on dry land, doggedly earthbound, and without much sway or flexibility in its triple-time essence, which is pretty wooden in its interpretation. Why on earth do we never hear the other works in concert, I wonder?
Michael Tumelty
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here