Eduard Tubin: Balalaika Concerto (Emanuil Sheynkman balalaika)

If you are a fan of the movie "Dr. Zhivago" looking for some folksy tunes played on a balalaika with pleasant orchestra interludes in between (and I was, kind of), this is not it.

Once I got over the initial disappointment and gave the work a few fair rounds of listening, it began to grow on me. Now I really enjoy it. The small volume a balalaika can produce is an obious limitation. An orchestra going at half throttle is more than enough to drown out the balalaika, and Tubin liked his orchestra vigorous. So mostly this is a "conversation" between the soloist and the orchestra. Still, it is an unusal and very interesting work. The Soloist is accompanied here by Neeme Järvi conducting Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

1. Andante ma rubato - Poco allegretto - Allegro non troppo (0:07)
2. Andante sostenuto (7:08)
3. Allegro giocoso (12:48)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Eduard
• Tubin
• Balalaika
• Concerto
• Emanuil
• Sheynkman
• Neeme
• Järvi
• Swedish
• Radio
• Symphony
• Orchestra

[djcyberia]

That's my dad on Balalaika!