An interesting, and quite historical, edition from Classic Edition. The world premiere of Reinhold Gliere's Horn Concerto with the great horn soloist Valeri Polekh and the composer conducting. Along with the horn concerto are orchestral works of Prokofiev, Glinka and Amirov led by the underrated Samuil Samosud.
The Gliere work is an extensive piece at nearly a half hour in length and unabashedly romantic in its conception. Polekh commissioned this piece in 1951 and it is probably one of the last compositions by Gliere. It is tuneful, masterfully orchestrated and the horn part is highly interesting. I love these old Russian small bore horns, I swear at times the horn sounds like a viola! If you are a horn afficionado, this is a great and amusing listen, both for Polekh's superb musicianship and as a recollection of an instrument design which has all but disappeared as Eastern Europe's musicians have adopted the best from the west as their weapons of choice. Gliere and Polekh work very well together, needless to say.
The orchestral fillers are tossed off in the best Soviet style with Glinka's Jota Aragonesa sounding like one Russian's recollection of a Spanish holiday. Amirov's Azerbajian specialty is highly atmospheric and was made for Leopold Stokowski. It's really all quite enjoyable and Samosud displays a deft leadership of the Bolshoi and USSR State Orchestras. I love this music played by the natives!
Admittedly, the sound is rather constricted and lacking much depth or ambiance. This is Melodiya of the early 50's when their state of the art was the US recording industry circa 1935. This all doesn't bother me since I feel priviledged to listen and learn from one of the great brass players of the last century.
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