Fantasy on Serbian Themes (alternatively known by the shorter title “Serbian Fantasy”) is a piece by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov written for orchestra. Dedicated to fellow composer Alexander Borodin, the piece was composed at the instigation of Mily Balakirev, leader of the Mighty Handful of which Rimsky-Korsakov was a part. Though, Balakirev desired a Pan-Slavic concert and requested Rimsky-Korsakov to compose the Fantasy to be performed in conjunction with Balakirev’s own “Czech Overture” in that concert, Rimsky-Korsakov later asserted that these nationalistic sentiments did not drive the composition of the Fantasy; the credit for inspiration belonged to the innate beauty of the themes themselves. The composer revised the piece, in 1887, to fit it into a new edition from Mitrofan Belyayev’s publishing house. Date: 1867 Catalogue: Op. 6 Dedicatee: Alexander Borodin Performers: Yondani Butt as conductor Philharmonia Orchestra Note: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes. This video is a reupload from Thomas van Dun, who withdrew all score videos of pieces not composed by himself. Original Uploader’s Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThomasvanDun/ ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rueQ2aDWMVw

Alexander Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 3 is a four-movement composition written a few years before the turn of the 20th century. The composer initially gave the piece the label “Gothic” to evoke the image of a medieval castle, but changed it to “States of the Soul” in the following years to retroactively reconcile it with his theosophic views. The piece makes use of sonata-allegro form as well as cyclic form, ensuring that themes from previous movements would come back in later ones. The first movement, Drammatico, is described by Scriabin in a program: “the soul, free and wild, thrown into the whirlpool of suffering and strife”. Its structure is in pure sonata form. The gallant exposition, beginning in F-sharp Minor, contains an eight measure long mazurka-like motif that would return throughout the movement. The second theme, in the relative key of A Major, is calm and docile. The second theme directly leads to an agitated development in measure 55, during which a sense of restless foreboding pervades. The original motif weaves in and out bashfully, before making an official comeback in measure 95. This is where the recapitulation begins. Though the rest is very much the same as the exposition, the second theme is transposed to the parallel key of F-sharp Major, symbolizing a sort of bittersweet triumph. In the second movement, Allegretto, Scriabin envisions “apparent momentary and illusory respite; tired from suffering the soul wants to forget, wants to sing and flourish, in spite of everything. But the light rhythm, the fragrant harmonies are just a cover through which gleams the restless and languishing soul”. Boisterous and jaunty, this movement grants a short burst of joy in an otherwise somber and stark opus. The octave-doubled bass line gallops around like a bucking horse and the majority of the piece revolves around an off-center beat. The third movement, “a sea of feelings, tender and sorrowful: love, sorrow, vague desires, inexplicable thoughts, illusions of a delicate dream”, comprises the slow movement of the Sonata. The beginning melody is sweet and bears a resemblance to one of the composer’s other preludes. However, a denser theme appears, in which the composer’s contrapuntal abilities are put to the test. The section’s mood immediately transforms into a serious one, like a sort of caveat, and the erstwhile consonance is replaced by more and more dissonance and chromaticism. By the time the rhythm hastens into triple meter, the sweet theme from before appears to wrest control away from the sinister chromatic one. At the end of the third movement, the first movement’s exposition theme makes a visit, which immediately transitions into the fourth movement in one seamless bridge. The fourth ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v39gHqc8ptU

"The composer's last opera 'Zolotoy petushok' or 'The Golden Cockerel' is a 'dramatized fable' (nebïlitsa v litsakh), based on an imitation folk tale in verse by Pushkin. The work was prevented from being performed by the censor until after the composer's death. The materials in question were the character of a lazy autocrat involved in harebrained conflicts with invading neighboring countries, and lines in the libretto such as the mention of 'a new dawn...without the Tsar' (which, nevertheless, had already appeared years before in Pushkin's published text). Because of the restriction, only the 'Introduction and Wedding Procession' (Introduction et Cortège de Noces) were performed during the composer's lifetime. These excerpts were premiered at a Russian Symphony Concert presented under the auspices of the Belayev publishing house in February 1908. These excerpts are masterpieces of timbral color and the artful evocation of imagery. Entering unaccompanied, two trumpets with mutes perform a fortissimo call, and are joined by two oboes in unison in their high register, creating an exotic timbre suggesting something akin to a Middle-Eastern army band. A violin diminuendo on the sustained tone leads into a new subtle atmosphere. Muted cellos enter with a gradually descending figure. The full orchestra then unfolds a velvety impressionist landscape filled with descending high woodwinds doubled by celeste and fluttering (tremolo) violins, as the harp and bass clarinet perform ascending punctuations, a cymbal rolls, and everyone else quietly sustains low rich harmonies. The clarinets, other woodwinds, and violins exchange runs in non-Western scales underscored with harp glissandi and low string tremolos and pizzicati. The next change in atmosphere combines the tubular bells and very high harp notes in octaves arpeggiating an unusual progression. This is punctuated by solo winds, and played in contrary motion against ascending cellos and bassoon in major and whole tone scales. The effect is plaintive and eerie, yet in a way religious. The music crescendos and suddenly breaks forth in a new setting of the trumpet call, answered in imitation by the woodwinds, and surrounded with quickly arpeggiated violins and lower strings in sul ponticello and then regular tremolo. The Introduction then closes on a powerful sustained unison. 'In the street, the triumphal procession begins. The king's militia come first with their important airs and bragging; next, the Queen of Shemakha's retinue; a promenade from an oriental fairy tale: certain persons that only have one eye in the middle of their forehead, others have horns, others the heads of dogs. Large and small Ethiopians, veiled slaves carry caskets and precious vessels. This strange pomp dissipat ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=484zNF-MpQo

"The second of three concertante works Rimsky-Korsakov wrote as director of Russia's Navy bands, this is billed not as a concerto (as are the compositions for trombone and clarinet), but simply as a set of variations. A short, ominous introduction lurching through the band's lower regions gives way to a hint of the main theme at the top of the ensemble, and the oboe quickly slips in to play Glinka's melody 'Beautiful Maiden', a lilting polonaise. Twelve very short variations ensue—the whole work can be played in less than nine minutes—with soloist and band taking nearly equal shares of the melodic work. Among the more striking variations are the fourth, in which the oboe plays recitative material over trills in the horns and flutes and a slightly sour waltz not long after that. Just before the end, the oboe takes a cadenza that is itself a sort of variation on the 12th variation. The band bursts in with a few peremptory measures and definitively halts the proceedings." —James Reel Date: 1878 Order: Introduction: 0:16 Theme: 0:48 Variation 1: 1:09 Variation 2: 2:10 Variation 3: 2:26 Variation 4: 2:44 Variation 5: 3:43 Variation 6: 4:02 Variation 7: 4:22 Variation 8: 4:43 Variation 9: 4:55 Variation 10: 5:43 Variation 11: 6:02 Variation 12: 6:40 Finale: 6:58 Performers: Lajos Lencsés on oboe Hans Zimmer as conductor Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra Note: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes. This video is a reupload from Thomas van Dun, who withdrew all score videos of pieces not composed by himself. Original Uploader’s Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThomasvanDun/ ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWhT76_lyEU