Russian Easter Festival Overture, opus 36 by Rimsky-Korsakov

Part 1
" Mass in the morning of Easter Sunday, in a large church crammed with people of all social classes, where several popes are celebrating the office simultaneously...this change of mood from the somber mystery of Good Friday to the uninhibited rejoicing of Easter Day..."

This is how Rimsky-Korsakov described what he hoped his audience would experience as they listened to his Russian Easter Festival Overture. The piece was composed in 1888, along with his two other famous works, Scheherazade and Capriccio Espagnol, at the height of his compositional career. He is remembered as a great orchestrator and teacher, with a predilection for folk and fairy-tale subjects; his students included Stravinsky, Glazanov and Prokofiev.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Russia
• Overture
• classical
• rimsky
• korsakov
• stony
• brook
• wind
• ensemble
• concert

[xo8jumbalaya8ox]

Yea. I really like Korsakov as well....glad to see everybody talking about his music =P

[Leopardseal1096]

My youth orchestra is playing the real version of this, which is around a hard grade 5 to grade 6.

We should have waited a year, since we become a symphony orchestra in September :)

Cellists unite!

[fugaisi888]

My orchestra sounds way better.

[lburnsxo]

its probably arranged to make it so young kids are able to play it. what they're playing in the video is much more difficult,like a grade 6

[PoppinsFANsxox1]

im only in sixth grade,and my concert band is playing this piece. but what really sucks is that it's band,not orchestra,so we don't even have a string section.We just sight read it yesterday,and it sounded horrible,but so do all da songs we sight read.after a bit of practice,it rilly starts 2 sound cool,u no wut i mean.since we're just a grade school band, will be lucky if rs sounds half as good as this. It sounds awesome,but hard.I play the frenchhorn and r part isn't that hard, we're lucky!!!!

[untgrad]

This piece is for full orchestra - strings, winds, brass and percussion. Period.

[mikebray011]

love it

[TheoryCrafter]

I have not heard you play it. However, I am willing to bet we can play it just as good as you, and for the first month we had it, we only did the string part in class, and the band joined us in after school rehearsals. So yes, I have heard exactly what you have, and what you dont seem to understand is that the horns adds a flavor that it was meant to have. This wasnt written in the medieval era, so it was not meant to have that sound.

[TheoryCrafter]

I am the principle bassist for Plano Senior High School, the #1 full orchestra in Texas.

Now, all bragging aside, you are wrong. The brass and winds add an element to the music that, without it, would strip the piece of much of its depth, and there would be, obviously, many gaps of awkardness where the strings have nothing of any importance. So dont fool yourself into thinking it does sound better without brass and such.

These guys fail in comparison to how we play it though.

[wowyourfaceisgay]

sounds good, but 100000X better if its only strings (my orchestra is playing it, only strings tho, trust me it sounds much more beautiful and aggressive)