Is It Fate ?

A double compilation cd called The Essential Borodin does what it says on the tin. Borodin shares with Rimsky-Korsakov the distinction of leading a full career outside of music composition, in his case as a chemist. He must also challenge Tchaikovsky and the later Prokofiev as supreme melodist, there are more tunes here than you can shake a stick at. If you think that you don't know Borodin, you will find that you almost certainly do when listening to the music here. Disk one consists of three sections. There is a selection from Prince Igor played by the London Symphony Orchestra and chorus under Sir George Solti, with bass soloist Nicolai Ghiaurov. Prince Igor was incomplete at the time of Borodin's relatively early death aged 54 and was completed and orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov. It includes the famous Polovtsian Dances and is followed by the song For The Shores Of Your Far Off Native Land sung by Nicolai Ghiaurov accompanied by Zlatina Ghiaurov on piano. Disk one ends with Symphony No 1 played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy and disk to begins with the most familiar Symphony No 2 performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jean Martinon. That is followed by the String Quartet No 2 played suitably enough by the Borodin Quartet and it is this work, together with the Polovtsian Dances, that was pillaged for the musical Kismet and where many of the familiar melodies are to be found. The disk ends with two orchestral pieces played by L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Ernest Ansermet, a short tone poem In The Steppes Of Central Asia and the unfinished Symphony No 3 which again had the attention of Glazunov to produce a performing version.