Mossolov's Foundry

Started by snyprrr, August 03, 2017, 08:48:17 PM

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snyprrr


vandermolen

#1
Used effectively as background music for an old BBC School's TV programme 'Stalin and the Industrialisation of the USSR' which I used to show my students.
There's an existing thread:
http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,13429.0.html
Here's the programme.
See if you can recognise the background music:
https://youtu.be/LKBoDfsvitE
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

pjme







The Roaring Twenties, in Russia ( and the UK). Paintings that match somehow Mossolov's 'and his colleagues) music. Power!

pjme

On 27 September 2017, the Grand Hall of The Moscow Conservatory hosted a concert titled "Unknown Mosolov". The event was dedicated to the works of Alexander Mossolov, one of the best Soviet constructivism composers of the previous century, according to Sergei Prokofiev. The theatricalised concert was dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organised under the auspices of the Russian Historical Society, Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation and Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation.

The evening became the finale of Season 3 of the multimedia project "Russian Composers Heritage Revival". Within the project, Unipro PJSC and Orpheus Radio Station have restored and digitised rare manuscripts, have recorded a triple audio CD set, have prepared a documentary and series of radio broadcasts about the life and creative work of Alexander Mossolov, a well-known composer back in 1920s – 1930s almost completely forgotten nowadays. The experts of Orpheus Radio Station, historians, and musicians have spent more than a year studying the archives, verifying texts, and restoring musical scores.

Alexander Mossolov was a man of an amazing yet tragic fate. He was one of the first Soviet avant-gardist, a revolutionary of music, a talented, brilliant, and daring composer, whose art was straightforward, transparent, and honest. In 1920s – 1930s his works were a massive success in Russia and Europe. Musical critics of the day deemed Mossolov's works to be the "Bible of avant-garde".

But in the late 1930s, the composer became the victim of witch hunt and persecution. The newspapers began publishing devastating critiques of Mossolov's work, and his music was deemed to be "inartistic".

Here are some quotes: "Mossolov is a bourgeois urbanist"; "His is too much of a stranger to our Soviet reality, he is unable to become a part of it, he feels lonely here".

In 1937, Alexander Mossolov was imprisoned in Volga Correctional Labour Camp. For many years his name remained a taboo in the history of Soviet music. Only years later was he able to return to composing. But his music has changed completely. Mr. Mossolov was a different, broken man, unable to compose.

In his letters to friends he wrote, "The music is gone. I can't hear anything now. All my previous works sound arrogant and stupid. Maybe, this is my punishment, maybe I was wrong in my search?"

Many works of Alexander Mossolov were lost, and some of his handwritten music sheets were destroyed by the composer himself. Many of them have never been performed in Russia and abroad. The "Unknown Mossolov" concert is the tribute to the great composer.  The concert program included five works composed between 1928 and 1952. During the event that was a massive success and had to be stopped several times for tremendous rounds of applause, the musical performance was accompanied by the documentaries of the day.

Source: http://www.unipro.energy/en/pressroom/news/4917905/

https://www.youtube.com/v/TEtG25QLDPE

P.

pjme

#4
There's more Mosolov on YT.

https://www.youtube.com/v/UsYIXpM1vgw

https://www.youtube.com/v/ptgKwz7-Ej0

https://www.youtube.com/v/WJ8TaB1nlQo

HD registration of a concert in Moscou.

Part 2. Alexander Mosolov. Symphonic Suite "Song on the Narts" ( 1955) (starts at 38.50)
Part III: Song of Lamentation
Part IV: The Narts Revel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nart_saga


https://www.youtube.com/v/jENaIC9VV8Y

Pianoconcerto 2 (fragment).

North Star

"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." - Confucius

My photographs on Flickr

pjme

Sure, I thought so aswell. But could not find it...

Anyway, I like that Symphonic poem with soloists and chorus enough to mention it to Gmg.

P.

Roy Bland

is it just my impression or at the beginning of the Naxos album there are sound disturbances?

Daverz

If you are looking for something in the vein of Iron Foundry, check out Balada's Steel Symphony, which sounds like an homage to the 1920s machine music of Antheil and Mosolov.

Roy Bland

Quote from: Daverz on March 19, 2021, 08:54:02 PM
If you are looking for something in the vein of Iron Foundry, check out Balada's Steel Symphony, which sounds like an homage to the 1920s machine music of Antheil and Mosolov.
No i'm speaking of a defect of sound recording