I've never heard this before. Thank you for posting it. It's a shame orchestras and classical radio stations don't program this and other lesser-known works. We all miss-out when great works are forgotten. DA
Thanks for posting these rarely heard (especially in live concerts) pieces by Rimski-Korsakov. I'm also intrigued by the years of their composition and arrangement, 1894-95 and 1903, respectively. Those are historically significant turning-point times: it was during the 1894-95 Sino-Japanese War that the Imperial Japanese defeated the Imperial Manchu (Ching, or Qin) Chinese, soon to be followed by the 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War, in which the Japanese defeated the Imperial Russia, indirectly leading to the overthrow of the Tsar throne and the rise of the Soviets. How these events might have affected R-K (as a sometime Naval officer himself) and his compositions could be worthy topics for musicologists.
A favourite suite of mine! The orchestral writing is refined and magical throughout, easily some of the composer's best work. The first six or so minutes of feathery snowfall constitute, for me, one of THE truly great openings in a musical composition....
