Rain

Composer/s: Alexander Borodin

Performing artist/s: Ljubljana Radio Symphony Orchestra

Briefly discuss one major work on the CD and give your opinion of the work and the performance thereof on this particular CD:

This piece sounds slightly mysterious. It starts out with the woodwind instruments. The tempo is pretty slow and the notes are played detache. It starts out like that for a few minutes, before a sudden forte of instruments all playing together. I like how in the end, there is a huge crescendo until the finish. Overall, I don’t really like the slow and mysterious sound of this piece, and how it doesn’t have a distinct theme or melody. However, the instruments tie in beautifully together and makes a wonderful harmony.

Alexander Borodin was born in St. Petersburg in 1833. His Polovtsian dances are part of his opera, Prince Igor. Prince Igor was his most successful work, but was left unfinished at Borodin’s death Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov finished the work for him. Borodin studied piano, and taught himself how to play the cello. He had an extremely good education. Borodin wrote three symphonies, the last one unfinished.

Although Borodin was a composer, he wasn’t very concentrated on his work. Borodin worked as a chemist, and actually earned some fame in that field. But although Borodin wasn’t very focused on his work, his Polovtsian dances were still famous and well known.

~ by carina01pd2015 on December 3, 2009. Tagged: Reflection, School, Strings