"The Comedians", suite for small orchestra opus 26
"Colas Breugnon", opera in three acts opus 24 (Overture, The People's Feast, The People's Calamity, The People's Insurrection)
"Romeo and Julia", musical sketches for large symphony orchestra opus 56 (Introduction (Enmity and Love), Morning in Verona, Preparation for the Ball, Procession of the Guests, Merry Dance, Lyric Dance, In Friar Laurence's Cell, Scene in the Square, Romeo and Juliet, Finale (Death and Reconciliation))

Moscow Symphony Orchestra
Vasily Jelvakov (conductor)

Naxos 8.553411

Kabalevsky’s light touch is well displayed in these three orchestral suites, one from the opera Colas Breugnon – whose overture, a little tamely delivered here, remains his most popular piece – the others from incidental music. The Comedians was a play written for a children’s theatre in 1939 by the Jewish playwright Mark Daniel on the unlikely subject of Johannes Gutenberg (originally entitled The Inventor and the Actor). The lively “Galop” has been another of Kabalevsky’s successes.

His Shakespeare scores test his range a good deal further – they include Measure for Measure – and in the music for Romeo and Juliet he succeeds better with the sprightlier pieces than in the love music or death music for the star-crossed lovers. There is a sombre movement for Friar Laurence that has a half-allusion to Tchaikovsky’s depiction of him at the start of his Overture. But without knowing more of the nature of the production, written in 1956 for the theatre named in honour of one of Russia’s pioneering twentieth-century theatrical experimenters, Yevgeny Vakhtangov, or whether there is more music which did not fit into a suite, it is unfair to question the balance of moods. What we have here is some agreeable light music, agreeably played.

John Warrack
Gramophone, November 1996

Kabalevsky (1904-87) was one of the more acquiescent Soviet composers, toeing the party line by producing tuneful and accessible music. Beecham thought the overture to the opera Colas Breugnon one of the noisiest in the repertoire. It is certainly a lively work and gets the suite off to a cracking start.

The Comedians suite depicts the life of an itinerant company of buffoons with ten catchy numbers, particularly a breezy Galop. To conclude, there’s a suite from incidental music to Romeo and Juliet, rather overshadowed by Prokofiev’s. This disc is largely a carefree romp mixed with some lyrical and dramatic music, all evidently scored with skill. The Muscovites play with rhythmic panache and commitment under Jelvakov.

Christopher Fifield
BBC Music Magazine