Colas Breugnon

I have an affinity for the music of Russian composers. One of my favorite compositions, and less familiar than many, is the delightful overture by Dmitri Borisovich Kabalevsky, Colas Breugnon, Op. 24. This is the overture for his opera based on the original story by Romain Rolland (1919), of Jean-Christophe and Nobel Prize fame. The overture has interesting, even tantalizing harmonies and an orchestration that suggests that Kabalevsky studied the Rimsky-Korsakoff Principles of Orchestration well. My favorite recording remains that of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra led by Fritz Reiner.