Track 10 of this compilation (it has the rather saccharine title “Russian Romance”) purports to be an arrangement for violin and orchestra of the Song of the Volga Boatmen. In a gesture of what seems like unbelievably cavalier plagiarism, Peter Breiner’s version begins–unaltered and note for note–with a quite substantial chunk (the dark-toned “fate” clarinet theme) lifted from the slow preface to the main exposition section of the opening movement of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. What follows, a remarkably sensitive conjunction between the folk-song theme itself and the Tchaikovsky motif, almost makes such audacious thematic abuse seem justified, and this, like many a Peter Breiner transcription, is very effective indeed. And if it seems initially hard to know why something as benignly titled as Lev Knipper’s Meadowland opens in Breiner’s version with stabbing fortissimo unison chords that could have come out of Kaschei’s infernal dance in The Firebird, again question not the reasons why, just enjoy the music! The balalaika-band favorite Moscow Nights (aka Midnight in Moscow) starts with a curtain-raising orchestral flourish that could grace the opening credits of any 1950s Hollywood blockbuster, but the ingenuity and wealth of incident in these Breiner orchestrations is never less engaging than in the cultivated solo violin playing of Takako Nishizaki, wife of Naxos boss Klaus Heymann. Orchestral contributions from the Queensland Symphony under Breiner are more than acceptable, as is the well-balanced recording, made at ABC’s Brisbane studios in 1994. Enjoy!
