This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” with the lingering evidence of our last winter storm still coating lawns and piled high around parking lots in the Trenton-Princeton area, we welcome spring with selections from Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “The Snow Maiden.”
Based on an allegorical Russian fairy tale of humans, quasi-mythological creatures, and the eternal forces of nature, “The Snow Maiden” is the story of a star-crossed love that brings about the end of a 15-year winter. The orchestral suite – which climaxes with the “Dance of the Tumblers” – is fairly popular, but the opera, as with all of Rimsky’s 16 efforts in the form, is virtually unknown in the West.
The recording, on the Capriccio label, which features the Bulgarian Radio Symphony conducted by Stoyan Angelov, doesn’t hold a candle to the best Rimsky opera recordings by conductors like Nikolai Golovanov, but it’s enough to give a taste of what American opera lovers are missing.
I hope you’ll join me for “Thaw of the Wild,” tonight at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.
