Spotlight Balakirev: Orchestra works by “The Mighty Five”

It is quite surprising that an extremely fruitful and varied collaboration like Karajan’s with the Philharmonia Orchestra in the studio started with a work outside Karajan’s German/Austrian or the Orchestra’s British repertoire. After an “overture” with Dinu Lipatti and the Schumann piano concerto in 1948, their first recording session without a soloist in November 1949 was dedicated to Mily Balakirev’s first symphony, a work that hadn’t been recorded before. The reason for this “eccentric” choice lay in a special sponsorship that Walter Legge managed to contrive. The young rich Maharaja of Mysore was fond of Karajan’s conducting and supported Legge’s and the Philharmonia’s recording efforts generously. In return he expressed wishes for different pieces to be recorded – Bartók’s “Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta”, Roussel’s fourth symphony and the Balakirev. Karajan agreed and “the thrilling account of the rarely heard Balakirev symphony was a triumph. The Maharaja of Mysore […] was well pleased with the results. (Richard Osborne)”

Balakirev was the leader and adviser of a group of composers called “The Mighty Five” – including also Mussorgsky, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov and César Cui – which created a specific form of national Russian music. Except for Cui, Karajan conducted works by all of them. Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov” and “Pictures at an Exhibition” were cornerstones of his repertoire. Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov were represented by their most popular works, the “Polovtsian Dances” and “Sheherazade”. Karajan never conducted them in concert but recorded “Sheherazade” successfully with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1967 and the dances three times – with the Berliners in 1971 and twice with the Philharmonia, in 1954 and in one of their last joint recording sessions in September 1960.

We’ve prepared playlists with Karajan conducting “The Mighty Five”. Listen to them here.

—  P.R. Jenkins