#003
Boris Stepanovich Feoktistov (Борис Степанович Феоктистов) (1910-1988) plays the balalaika solo Kamarinskaya with the Alexandrov Ensemble, conducted by Boris Alexandrovich Alexandrov at the Albert Hall, London, 1963. (NB: Please note that Feoktistov's name is spelled incorrectly on Western recordings; sorry I was misled and spelled it wrongly on the video.)
Rodrigo's 1939 guitar concerto, Concierto de Aranjuez, was popular at the time, and this arrangement by B.A. Alexandrov contains references to that concerto, especially towards the end. But there are other references, especially at the beginning, to Chinese folk music. Musically, there's a lot going on here, even after you've finished being knocked out by Feoktistov's virtuoso balalaika-playing.
As far as I know, the usual 1963 recordings of this, repeated on most CDs, were made at the Abbey Road studios in London, but this recording of the live Albert Hall concert itself is rarely heard. This recording was put onto tape, then vinyl for sale in Russia, then later digitalised in Russia, so it has come on a long journey to us here on Youtube.
The Albert Hall was the only indoor space big enough for the Ensemble in 1963. It's a huge and very high circular space, holding at least 5,500 people - and it was full at that concert. The acoustics are famously so difficult that the audience up in the "gods" hear the music long after they see the conductor wave his baton, or the drummer beat his drum. Yet this recording is, I think, more satisfying than the studio recordings.
The photographs are my own work. Why crocuses? Well, if this arrangement of Kamarinskaya is Boris's response to the Rodrigo guitar concerto which is about escapism into Nature, and if crocuses are a celebratory rebirth of spring, then it kind of fits.
Albert Hall 1963 playlist:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list...
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