Glière: Symphony No. 3, 'Il'ya Muromets' Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra & JoAnn Falletta

• 1 I. Wandering Pilgrims (Il'ya Muromets and Svyatogor): Andante sostenuto - Allegro risoluto 21:24
• 2 II. Solovey, the Brigand: Andante 20:03
• 3 III. At the Court of Vladimir, the Mighty Sun: Allegro 07:10
• 4 IV. The Heroism and Petrification of Il'ya Muromets: Allegro tumultuoso - Andante 23:04
• Total Runtime 01:11:41

Info for Glière: Symphony No. 3, 'Il'ya Muromets'

“The Glière Symphony No 3 has always been a piece that shimmered on my horizon—a cult piece, in a way, renowned as the composer’s towering masterpiece but rarely played in concert. As long as a Mahler symphony and enormous in its instrumental requirements, it was a work that people spoke about reverently but almost never heard live. The recording was an adventure that changed our orchestra, strengthened us, and became an artistic benchmark for our musicians. We revelled in the gorgeous landscape of the Symphony—from mysterious bass murmurings to crushing walls of brass fortissimo to breathtaking impressionistic renderings of forests and birds. We performed and recorded this massive work uncut to preserve Glière’s extraordinary architecture. This work is a cathedral in sound that unfolds in breathtaking swashes of colour, poetry and monumental climaxes.” (JoAnn Falletta)

„Pride of place this year goes to JoAnn Falletta’s magisterial new recording of Glière’s Il’ya Muromets. This is not quite unknown territory, but the work—especially in its uncut form—is rarely performed and rarely recorded, not only because of the large forces involved, but even more because, in lesser hands, it can so easily sound over-extended. No one has a better sense of its overall dramatic structure than Falletta—and no one has a cannier sense of the flavor of its special sound world. A classic.“ (Peter J. Rabinowitz, Fanfare)

„This is an important recording for several reasons. First, it contains the finest version yet recorded of Glière’s epic Third Symphony, “Il’ya Muromets.” Second, it defines once and for all how the piece is supposed to go. Now I am not going to suggest that the symphony is concise or pithily argued, but this interpretation makes better sense of it than any previous version, and it’s also engineered with the vividness and impact necessary to do the playing full justice. The myth of the music’s awkward gigantism and formal diffuseness has been debunked, with the perhaps paradoxical result that the symphony’s true stature has grown proportionately.“ (David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com)

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra
JoAnn Falletta, conductor

Recorded at Kleinhans Music Hall, Buffalo, New York, USA, from 3rd to 5th May, 2013 Produced, edited and engineered by Tim Handley

The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra
was founded in 1935 and makes its home in Kleinhans Music Hall, a National Historic Landmark with an international reputation as one of the greatest concert halls in the United States. Through the decades the orchestra has grown in stature under a number of distinguished conductors including William Steinberg, Josef Krips, Lukas Foss, Michael Tilson Thomas, Julius Rudel, Semyon Bychkov, and Maximiano Valdés. As Buffalo’s cultural ambassador, the BPO has performed across the United States, Canada and Europe, including concerts at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Boston’s Symphony Hall, San Francisco’s Davies Hall and 22 appearances in Carnegie Hall. The orchestra’s European tour included two sold-out performances in Vienna’s Musikverein, and concerts in Milan, Geneva, Zurich and Frankfurt, among other venues. The BPO performs 120 concerts annually and is heard by millions on radio broadcasts across the United States and beyond on American Public Media’s Performance Today.

JoAnn Falletta
serves as Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Virginia Symphony in the United States and Principal Conductor of the Ulster Orchestra in Northern Ireland. She has guest conducted over a hundred orchestras in North America, and many of the most prominent orchestras in Europe, Asia, South America and Africa and is the Principal Guest Conductor of the Brevard Music Center of North Carolina. Recipient of the Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award, winner of the Stokowski Competition, and the Toscanini, Ditson and Bruno Walter conducting awards, Falletta has also received eleven ASCAP awards and serves on the U.S. National Council on the Arts. A champion of American music, she has presented nearly five hundred works by American composers including over one hundred world premières. Her Naxos recordings include the double GRAMMY® Award winning disc of works by John Corigliano and GRAMMY® nominated discs of works of Tyberg, Dohnányi, Fuchs, Schubert, and Respighi.

Booklet for Glière: Symphony No. 3, 'Il'ya Muromets'