Various Composers - Russian Masquerade (Sakari Oramo)

Information

• (01) Prokofiev - Visions fugitives (arr. Rudolf Barshai)
• (16) Scriabin - Preludes, Op. 11 (arr. Jouni Kaipainen)
• (29) Arensky - Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky, Op. 35a
• (38) Tchaikovsky - Elegy for string orchestra

Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra
Sakari Oramo, conductor

Date: 2019
Label: BIS Records
https://bis.se/conductors/oramo-sakari/russian-masquerade

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Review

Of course transcription involves compromise here and amplification there but the case of Prokofiev’s Visions fugitives in this 1962 arrangement for strings by Rudolf Barshai is a little more fundamental. However many corners in Barshai’s upholstered version show that the music can suggest many things, the entire set (which omits No 7) is lifted on to entirely different foundations. It is no longer one person’s thoughts but something fundamentally grander. I smiled at Barshai’s handling of the microscopic coda at the end of No 9 and his complex layering in No 16 but am still left with the feeling that massed strings force flesh on to a purposefully skeletal design.

Which they don’t in the selection of Scriabin’s 24 Preludes made and orchestrated by the late Jouni Kaipainen in 1999. These pieces find Scriabin in hearty, romantic voice before that voice transmuted (string clothing can admittedly underline the fact that this is no Souvenir de Florence but occasionally, as in No 8, wants to be). As the notes point out, certain numbers flourish with the added bass of low strings (Nos 14 and 18) and others from the sense of flight in upper ones (No 23), while the ensemble work in No 6 gives the engaging impression of multiple human beings pushing and pulling at the argument. The crack chamber orchestra from Finland’s west coast is well drilled, with a grainy sound closely captured.

Oramo brings his architectural nous to Arensky’s Variations, originally a movement from his String Quartet No 2 (that score for two cellos). Its theme is a simple strophic song, ultra-clear on each phase of the journey even when it is played upside down at the end. The composer’s own arrangement recalls Grieg’s Holberg Suite at times in its plain speaking jollity and tenderness. Tchaikovsky’s Elegy is a pleasing finisher but a slightly underwhelming one. For all its qualities, you might well have the same reaction to the disc as a whole.

-- Andrew Mellor, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2019/Jun/Russian_masquerade_BIS2365.htm
https://www.pizzicato.lu/heise-musik-mit-dem-ostrobothnian-chamber-orchestra/
https://www.amazon.com/Russian-Masquerade-Ostrobothnian-Chamber-Orchestra/dp/B07QFG7JZ5

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Sakari Oramo (born October 26, 1965 in Helsinki) is a Finnish conductor. He started his career as a violinist and concertmaster of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (FRSO), and studied conducting with Jorma Panula at the Sibelius Academy. From 1998 to 2008, Oramo was Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, with which he championed the music of John Foulds in concerts and recordings. He was Principal Conductor of the FRSO (2003-2012), and is currently Chief Conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra (since 2008) and the BBC Symphony Orchestra (since 2013).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakari_Oramo

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