Three Generations Of Russians

A concerto showcase cd by the violinist Nikolaj Znaider and the Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunk conducted by Mariss Jansons. The disk features Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No 2, Glazunov's Violin Concerto and the short piece Meditation by Tchaikovsky as a filler. Glazunov was the director of the St Petersburg conservatory when Prokofiev was studying there and the two did not see eye to eye. With the inclusion of the Tchaikovsky piece, the disk is really encompassing three generations of Russian composers. Now it is Prokofiev who is the more famous but in his day, Glazunov was looked upon as a Russian master. His violin concerto has remained as the one work of his that holds a regular repertory place, a romantic, slavic work. Prokofiev's second concerto is a piece firmly of the 20th century with a conflicting mix of lyricism and more trenchant modernism. The Danish Znaider does all three works more than justice, no doubt assisted in finding an authentically Russian idiom by his conductor.