Rimsky-Korsakov wrote comparatively few concertante works, but his five relatively short compositions in that genre all date from between 1877 (Concerto for Trombone and Military Band) and 1886. In fact, the Fantasie de concert on two Russian themes for violin and orchestra, published in Leipzig in 1887 as his Opus 33, is the last of these, a work which exhibits more than a nod in the direction of the then emerging Russian nationalist school owing to the material being based upon two folk-songs. These are best translated as ‘I am tired of the Night’ and ‘The young girl went walking in the little wood’, the titles of which give a fair idea of the character of the music, though the precise nature of the adventures which we assume befell her are doubtless better left to the imagination.

from notes by Robert Matthew-Walker © 2010