Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade; Tsar Saltan

Advantages: Gorgeous Melodies, Exciting, Storytelling Piece and all around Beautiful Music
Disadvantages: None

...a position as professor of instrumentation and composition at St. Petersburg Conservatoire in 1871 (not bad for a largely self-taught individual I’d say) and resigned his commission in the navy the following year. He had quite a distinguished musical career. At the Conservatory he taught many of the other famous composers we know today such as Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky! His main orchestral works include Sheherazade (which I’ve been told should be correctly spelled as Scheherazade) and Capriccio espagnol. He wrote fifteen operas which included The Tale of Tsar Saltan (which contains the well known Flight of the Bumblebee), Khashchei the Immortal, and Le Coq d’Or or The Golden Cockerel. Rimsky-Korsakov died in Lybensk in 1908. *********************** The Piece: *********************** Sheherazade (also spelled Scheherazade... Read review

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Advantages: McNeely's take on Star Wars material is brilliant
Disadvantages: None.

..."A soundtrack for a Star Wars novel?" At first glance -- or first listen -- it seems an odd idea. Scores are composed for movies, TV programmes, and sometimes stage plays. But for books? Then again, quite a few classical music compositions are themselves derived from literary works. Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet" Overture was derived from Shakespeare tale of "starcross'd lovers," and Rimsky-Korsakov wrote his Scheherazade orchestral suite based on Tales of One Thousand Nights. So why couldn't there be a score for a Star Wars novel? In 1996, even as the 20th Anniversary Special Edition of the Star Wars Trilogy was being prepped for release in early 1997 and pre-production planning for Episode I was starting, Lucasfilm gathered several authors, artists, and representatives from Hasbro and other licensees to discuss a huge... Read review

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Advantages: A great recording of popular and familiar works with excellent sound and performance values
Disadvantages: Absolutely none whatsoever

...GENERAL HISTORY OF COMPOSER Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was born in 1839 to a family of land-owners. In 1856 he joined the army where he met Alexander Borodin and César Cui, who introduced him to Mily Balakirev, the teacher of Cui and the future, self-appointed head of the Mighty Five. He resigned in 1858 to pursue a musical career, but the emancipation of the serfs in 1861 forced Mussorgsky to join the civil service, while continuing to composing in his spare time. Mussorgsky was soon linked with the Nationalist Russian School of composers of the "Mighty Five" that included Mily Balakirev following Mihail Glinka, the grandfather of Russian national music, as the "leader" of the group. Others were Cesar Cui, Alexander Borodin and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. During this time Mussorgsky developed his own realistic style, abandoning Western... Read review

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