Glazunov's Symphony No 8 opens confidently and lyrically, conductor Valéry Polyansky maintaining an easy-going momentum, later pressing forward, yet always holding the argument together. There's some lovely woodwind playing in the Mesto slow movement and the strings create a genuinely passionate climax. The Scherzo is given a purposeful thrust, and the finale doesn't outstay its welcome, with the chorale theme splendidly sonorous at the opening, the drive and tension of the playing well maintained to the end.
Also well captured here is the lovely Poèmelyrique was admired by Tchaikovsky for its rich flow of Russian melancholy. But what makes this Chandos disc so very attractive is the Cantata inMemory of Pushkin's 100th Birthday, which is full of warmly lyrical ideas. Glazunov's flow of invention more than compensates for the doggerel poetry he was forced to set by the Grand Duke Constantine Romanov. The work is framed and interlaced by splendid, powerfully sung and very Russian choruses of gratitude. There's a lovely 'Berceuse' for the mezzo, here radiantly sung by Ludmila Kuznetsova, who redeems its sentimentality; a later aria of praise for the tenor is relished by Vsevolod Grivnov; finally comes a hymn in which the two soloists join, exultantly taken up by the chorus, with a burst of joy at the close. This one of those happy works, full of melody, that makes you feel glad to be alive. A truly memorable performance then, and the Chandos recording is well up to house standards.