The music of Nikolai Tcherepnin is not much played these days, but he was right in the middle of the multi-media creative ferment in Paris that produced Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring in the same year, 1913, as the main attraction here, Tcherepnin's ballet Narcisse et Echo, Op. 40. It is not Stravinsky or even Ravel, but it is an entirely original work that can in no way be called conservative. Tcherepnin gives his percussion section a great deal to do, and the players of the Bamberg Symphony under conductor Lukasz ...
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The music of Nikolai Tcherepnin is not much played these days, but he was right in the middle of the multi-media creative ferment in Paris that produced Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring in the same year, 1913, as the main attraction here, Tcherepnin's ballet Narcisse et Echo, Op. 40. It is not Stravinsky or even Ravel, but it is an entirely original work that can in no way be called conservative. Tcherepnin gives his percussion section a great deal to do, and the players of the Bamberg Symphony under conductor Lukasz Borowicz rise to the occasion. There are all kinds of novel effects, including jazz-like syncopations (this well before the emergence of jazz in Europe, or even the U.S.) and a wordless chorus. The Bamberg strings do well in the more lyrical passages as well as in the opening Prelude to La Princesse lointaine, Op. 4, a still earlier work that opens the program. Even if one may wish to hear a Narcisse et Echo from one of the waves of Russian expatriate conductors, these are fine performances...
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