Taneyev: Suite de Concert, Op. 28 (with Rimsky-Korsakov - Fantasy on Two Russian Themes, Op. 33)

"A mellower Mordkovitch is outstanding in this splendid Russian pairing. "Mordkovitch", according to critic Edward Seckerson, "has mellowed. She has… curbed her edgy dynamism." Indeed she has. The overwhelming quality here is a rich, creamy tone - even luscious at times. She finds the drama in the Rimsky-Korsakov and Taneyev works but relishes the cushioning orchestrations. A disc to enjoy. Sounds like she did."
(Editor's Choice Gramophone Magazine Awards Issue 2008)

Lydia Mordkovitch and the then Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Neeme Järvi were a celebrated team in the 1980s, recording many notable Russian works, including the concertos by Khachaturian, Prokofiev and Shostakovich for Chandos, and winning a Gramophone Award. This 'team' has recently re-assembled to record little-known concertante works by Taneyev and Rimsky Korsakov. The unusual coupling of works by Taneyev and Rimsky-Korsakov, two great composer friends, neatly symbolises the era of the last decades of nineteenth-century Russia, with its great conservatories in Moscow and St Petersburg exerting enormous influence on the music of the country at the time.