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Eric - the Lullaby is almost certainly his Berceuse from the Noure et Anitra suite (Op. 13, No. 7) which has been recorded quite a few times - and which first got me interested in this composer!

This is a great find - thanks.  How did you find that CD? Yes I was aware of Il'yinsky as another Latin-script variation of his name. 

On the internet I found the Universal Studios recording that I mentioned in my first post - however it comes with a 30-minute radio play in the background! http://darkfantasy.podomatic.com/player/web/2007-09-05T09_28_38-07_00 - In adition to the films mentioned, the music was also used for a long-running radio play in the USA called The Witch's Tale.  So it would be great somehow to isolate this music and get it without the radio play attached....

Thanks Eric - yes I saw some of his stuff on IMSLP - Croatian Dances etc.  But I am trying to find out what has been recorded, if anything other than the few pieces I mentioned earlier.

I have also come across a reference to a "Leginsky" as the composer of the Orgy of the Spirits.  However, I am certain that this is a mistaken rendering of one variation of our composer's name "Iljinksy" - one of the many possible ways of spelling Ильинский" in Latin script.  From Iljinsky to Ilginsky to Leginsky...

Reinhold Gliere's Third Symphony "Ilya Muromets"!  Has all the criteria that many have pointed to above - epic, long, "narrates" a battle fought and won while at the same time pointing to inner struggle. I'm glad to see that quite a few contributors above agree. In my view the best recording is by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Edward Downes.

I live in Moscow.  I have found so many pieces here which I had previously been firmly told by generalist and specialist sellers in London had "never" been recorded.  Often they are on Melodiya LPs which I then transfer to CD.  Melodiya seems not to have a comprehensive catalogue of everything it ever recorded (probably not unconnected with the fact that in the Soviet times, certain artists would fall from grace and their recordings withdrawn from circulation).  "Unsung" composers, whose pieces I have found despite having been told there were no recordings, include Alexandr Serov, Sergei Taneyev, Dolidze, Paliashvili, Dikranian, Ter-Gevondian, Isaac Dunaevksy, Eugen Doga, Tikhon Khrennikov, Verstovsky, Nikolai Tcherepnin, Rebikov, Chukhajian, Mosolov, Napravnik, etc etc - but so far NOT, alas, Catoire...

Did Catoire write any other symphonic or stage works?

I had heard that Hyperion was planning to release it, and actually wrote to them to ask for more information (January 2007) - they replied as follows: 
"That Catoire concerto has not been recorded by us (or anyone else) which is why you cannot find it. Marc-André Hamelin was considering it but, in the end, did not feel it was strong enough. We may yet do it with another pianist but nothing has been decided yet, because we already have the next couple of years planned out it wouldn't be for some time."

Maybe things have changed since then, as I also would love to hear this piece.

Thanks JimL - yet sorry for mixing up.  I always think "violoncello" when I see "VC".  But I did mean that I have a recording of the Cello Concerto No.1 with Rostropovich, and that link I posted references a recording of the Cello Concerto No.2!

Thanks for your reply Dennis.  I actually have a copy of the Rostropovich Khrennikov VC1, and can happily email it to you if you give me your email address.  It took me years to find it.  The source I eventually got it from told me the following:
"Russian Disc was sued by Rostropovich, as he did not give permission for the performance rights. However, the recordings belonged to a Russian radio archive, and the recordings were legal (EMI put out a 13 CD box in 1997, with many of those same recordings, though they were monaural, while the Russian Disc recordings were stereo). The 3 people who owned Russian Disc could not afford an attorney, and caved-in to Rostropovich. Rostropovich publicly destroyed all of the CD's that featured him (the Khrennikov you're looking for was one of those discs), so about 500 copies may have been sold, before the company folded."

I have seen references on the net to LP recordings of the VC2 (eg - http://home.wanadoo.nl/ovar/khrenn.htm which references LP Melodiya C10 24747 002: Moscow Philharmonic SO, V. Gergiev (cond), M. Brunello (cello) )

Some of the correspondents on this thread also imply they have a copy.

Does anyone know if the Cello Concertos 3 and 4 by Karl Davydov have ever been recorded?

Have Napravnik's four symphonies been recorded?

I am trying to find out more about the Russian composer Alexander Ilyinksy (1859-1920). A very few recordings of his works exist - mostly in the form of his Berceuse (Cradle Song), part of his Noure and Anitra suite, Op.13 (No.7). I have this piece in its version for solo piano, and also in a version for voice and orchestra (by the Canadian soprano Florence Easton, recorded c.1924).  I also have a recording of another piece called Butterfly, for clarinet and piano (on Classical Records: Evgeni Petrov on clarinet, Tatiana Tarasevich on piano).  It is a wonderful piece, rapid and urgent and highly reminiscent of Ilyinsky's near-contemporary Rimsky-Korsakov and his Flight of the Bumblebee. 

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Ilyinsky) "His major work, the 4-act opera The Fountain of Bakhchisaray, to a libretto based on Alexander Pushkin's poem, was produced in Moscow in 1911.[3] He also wrote a symphony, a Concert Overture[1], a string quartet, three orchestral suites, a set of orchestral Croatian Dances, a symphonic movement called Psyche[1], two cantatas for female chorus and orchestra (Strekoza (The Dragonfly) and Rusalka), incidental music to Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and Philoctetes, and to Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy's Tsar Fiodor Ioannovich, piano pieces, church music, songs...".

Another website (http://grandemusica.net/musical-biographies-i/iljinsky-alexander) says the following:  "Iljinsky's principal works are a Concert Overture; Overture to Count Tolstoi's tragedy, Tsar Feodor; Music to Socrates' tragedies, CEdipus Rex, and Philocetes; the opera, The Fountain of Bachtchisaraj, in four acts, libretto by Pushkin; the one-act ballet, Noor and Anitra; the cantatas, Strecoza, and Rusalka, for female chorus and orchestra; a symphony; symphonic scherzo, Red Dances; symphonic movement, Psyche; three suites; also a string quartet; and other music for violin, cello and piano. He has also written the church works, Pray to the Father; Pater Noster; Te Deum; Laudamus; Imitation prelude; and a fugue. In 1904 there appeared a very extensive work, Biographies of all Composers from the Fourth to the Twentieth Century, edited by Iljinsky."

There is known to be another recording of one of Ilyinsky's works: "Orgy of the Spirits" (which is another part of the Noure et Anitra Suite) was recorded by Universal Studios for use in some of their 1930s films, as I found on the following 2 websites:

http://flashgordon.homestead.com/files/fgnarratives.html  -

"One music selection used eight times in Mars was tracked directly from East of Java (1935). It is a rapid, turbulent and exciting bacchanal entitled Orgy of the Spirits. It was composed by the little-known Russian composer, Alexandre Iljinsky (1859-1920). He wrote it for his fourteen-part Oriental suite entitled, Noure et Anitra (Op. 13). Charles J. Roberts of Carl Fischer Music in New York published this arrangement that was recorded by a theater orchestra at Universal for the 1935 film. In East of Java, this brief bacchanal underscores a typhoon, but was rendered inaudible by the sound effects. This classical piece was later tracked in the Universal serial, Tim Tyler's Luck (1937). It bears a striking resemblance to the classic, A Night on Bald Mountain, that was written by Russian composer, Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839-1881)."

http://www.dilettantemusic.com/artist/3022 -

None of Ilyinsky's compositions retained popularity after his death -- not even enough to be recorded by the Soviet government-run Melodiya label) -- and none was extant in the repertory at the midpoint of the twentieth century. Through pure happenstance, however, a fragment of his Orgy of the Spirits became part of the Universal Studios music library during the mid-'30s; a minute-long musical excerpt from it was heard dozens of times throughout the background score of the 1937 jungle adventure serial Tim Tyler's Luck, and also two minutes before the end of Chapter 7 of Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938).
...In chapter two of the Mars, one section of it can be heard at the 8:57 mark as Flash gets into a fight with the Martian soldiers, and another section is used at the 9:16 mark in the serial. In chapter three at the 19:27 mark, another section is heard as the support beams that hold up the landing tower are being destroyed by Tarnak and Ming. This foils Flash and Zarkov from escaping with Azura. It is heard later at the 19:34 mark in chapter seven, as Flash engages in a savage fight with one of the tree-men, while trying to get into the Temple of Kalu.


From this description, it sounds like he could be a composer worthy of further exploration, especially as someone who is reportedly similar in style to Mussorgsky (one of my favourites).

One more titbit - apparently this "Orgy of the Spirits" was used as the theme tune for a WOR radio play in the USA called "The Witch's Tale" which ran from 1931 to 1938.

Would anyone have any suggestions as to how I might be able to get this recording from Universal Studios, or the producers of the radio play?

Does anyone have any recordings of his other works?

Life is not helped by the fact that Ilyinsky (Ильинский) can also be transliterated from the Cyrillic as Ilinsky, Ilinski, Ilynsky, Iljinsky, Iljinskiy, Iljinskij, Ilinskiy, Ilynskiy, Ilyinsky, Ilyinskiy, etc etc....making internet searches quite complex!

Does anyone know where I can get a copy of Khrennikov's Cello Concerto No. 2 ?