Sergey Taneyev - Overture “Oresteia“, Op. 6 (1889)

Sergey Ivanovich Taneyev (Russian: Серге́й Ива́нович Тане́ев, 25 November [O.S. 13 November] 1856 – June 19 [O.S. June 6] 1915) was a Russian composer, pianist, teacher of composition, music theorist and author. Please support my channel: Ouverture de “L’Orestie“ in E minor, Op. 6 (1889) Dedication: Anton Arensky (1861-1906) Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Neeme Järvi Taneyev regarded his Oresteia, originally conceived in 1882, as his major achievement. This work, which the composer entitled a ’musical trilogy’ rather than an opera, was closely modeled on the original plays of Aeschylus and was first performed at the Mariinsky Theatre on 17 October 1895. Taneyev wrote a separate concert overture, based on some of the opera’s major themes, which was conducted by Tchaikovsky in 1889. Rimsky-Korsakov considered many of Taneyev’s compositions to be “most dry and laboured in character.“ A private hearing of Oresteia at his home, with Taneyev at the piano, was quite another matter. The opera, he writes, “astonished us all with pages of extraordinary beauty and expressiveness“. He added that Taneyev’s working methods “ought to result in a dry and academic composition, devoid of the shadow of an inspiration; in reality, however, Oresteia proved quite the reverse—for all its strict premeditation, the opera was striking in its wealth of beauty and expressiveness.“