Tcherepnin's Tchreasure Tchest

[Cato]

[asin]B000092R45[/asin]

the Trio (1960) ---------->   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ5g-sMFdBU



One of the more interesting compositions for this instrument-combo.

Many thanks for the updates!

https://www.youtube.com/v/VJ5g-sMFdBU


https://www.youtube.com/v/JSUweeyAY2s

[SymphonicAddict]

I've listened to the Cello sonata No. 1 from the disc above and I was very impressed. This is something else. It has a resemblance to Prokofiev in style in its quirkiness and rhythms. I've also heard his symphonies and as far as I remember they are substantial.

[kyjo]

I've listened to the Cello sonata No. 1 from the disc above and I was very impressed. This is something else. It has a resemblance to Prokofiev in style in its quirkiness and rhythms. I've also heard his symphonies and as far as I remember they are substantial.

Very cool, Cesar! Tcherepnin is certainly an unjustly overlooked composer. Have you listened to the Songs and Dances for cello and piano on that same CD? What a delightful work! I played it on my most recent recital back in April and had great fun with it.

I've also derived much pleasure recently from his Piano Concerto no. 4 Fantaisie, inspired by his immersion in Chinese culture and folk music. I especially love the colorful movement titles:

I: Eastern Chamber Dream
II: Yan Kuei Fei's Love Sacrifice
III: Road to Yunnan

[Cato]

Very cool, Cesar! Tcherepnin is certainly an unjustly overlooked composer. Have you listened to the Songs and Dances for cello and piano on that same CD? What a delightful work! I played it on my most recent recital back in April and had great fun with it.

I've also derived much pleasure recently from his Piano Concerto no. 4 Fantaisie, inspired by his immersion in Chinese culture and folk music. I especially love the colorful movement titles:

I: Eastern Chamber Dream
II: Yan Kuei Fei's Love Sacrifice
III: Road to Yunnan

Here it is via YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/v/3-s52cSAZrk

[SymphonicAddict]

Very cool, Cesar! Tcherepnin is certainly an unjustly overlooked composer. Have you listened to the Songs and Dances for cello and piano on that same CD? What a delightful work! I played it on my most recent recital back in April and had great fun with it.

I've also derived much pleasure recently from his Piano Concerto no. 4 Fantaisie, inspired by his immersion in Chinese culture and folk music. I especially love the colorful movement titles:

I: Eastern Chamber Dream
II: Yan Kuei Fei's Love Sacrifice
III: Road to Yunnan

No, I haven't yet, but I intend to give them a try these days. If they are as good or better than the Cello sonata No. 1, then I'll definitely like them. I do remember a Chinese influence on some works of this composer, and that PC sounds enticing, mostly because I'm crazy about exoticism in music!

[vandermolen]

No, I haven't yet, but I intend to give them a try these days. If they are as good or better than the Cello sonata No. 1, then I'll definitely like them. I do remember a Chinese influence on some works of this composer, and that PC sounds enticing, mostly because I'm crazy about exoticism in music!

Do you know Symphony3 Cesar? My favourite of those works which I know.

[SymphonicAddict]

Do you know Symphony3 Cesar? My favourite of those works which I know.

Jeffrey, I've heard all his symphonies but I don't have fresh memories of them, it's been some years ago, so I'm ashamed for not giving you a sincere impression. A thing I do remember is their catchy orchestration.

[kyjo]

Do you know Symphony3 Cesar? My favourite of those works which I know.

I know you didn't ask me , but I really like the 3rd Symphony as well. I recall it having a particularly beautiful slow movement.

[vandermolen]

Thanks Cesar and Kyle - good to hear your views.

[Cato]

When I was in contact with Alexander Tcherepnin in the late 1960's and 1970's, some of his advice to me mirrored the open, eclectic nature of his works, i.e. keep your ears open to everything, for the more aural experience, the better you can judge what is of value to you, and what is not.

He of course lived in the era of experimentation, of searching for an alternative to the major/minor system or a replacement for it.  As a Russian, it is not surprising that Asia attracted him, as Orientalism had already attracted earlier Russian composers.  His ideas on counterpoint led to using "Interpoint" in many of his works.

This eclecticism/experimentation is perhaps more obvious in the earlier works, but is usually present to some degree in later ones.  The symphonies are good examples of this open-mindedness.   e.g. The First Symphony from the later 1920's, has a Neo-Classical feel in the opening movement, but then you hit that all percussion Scherzo anticipating Edgar Varese by a few years.

[SymphonicAddict]

When I was in contact with Alexander Tcherepnin in the late 1960's and 1970's, some of his advice to me mirrored the open, eclectic nature of his works, i.e. keep your ears open to everything, for the more aural experience, the better you can judge what is of value to you, and what is not.

He of course lived in the era of experimentation, of searching for an alternative to the major/minor system or a replacement for it.  As a Russian, it is not surprising that Asia attracted him, as Orientalism had already attracted earlier Russian composers.  His ideas on counterpoint led to using "Interpoint" in many of his works.

This eclecticism/experimentation is perhaps more obvious in the earlier works, but is usually present to some degree in later ones.  The symphonies are good examples of this open-mindedness.   e.g. The First Symphony from the later 1920's, has a Neo-Classical feel in the opening movement, but then you hit that all percussion Scherzo anticipating Edgar Varese by a few years.

Interesting information and gratifying experience meeting the man face to face. Since you knew him, how was his personality?

[Cato]

Interesting information and gratifying experience meeting the man face to face. Since you knew him, how was his personality?

My contact with Alexander and Madame Tcherepnin was through correspondence only.  So I cannot say much about his personality except that he generously took the time to read my theories and look at my compositions, at a time when they must have seemed rather puerile and arrogant (the theories) and eccentric at best (the compositions), and to respond without any disdainful laughter!   0:)

I should explain that it seemed that he dictated his letters to Madame Tcherepnin who then added her own comments.  Unfortunately I no longer have the letters, too many moves, too many adventures throughout the decades!

[SymphonicAddict]

My contact with Alexander and Madame Tcherepnin was through correspondence only.  So I cannot say much about his personality except that he generously took the time to read my theories and look at my compositions, at a time when they must have seemed rather puerile and arrogant (the theories) and eccentric at best (the compositions), and to respond without any disdainful laughter!   0:)

I should explain that it seemed that he dictated his letters to Madame Tcherepnin who then added her own comments.  Unfortunately I no longer have the letters, too many moves, too many adventures throughout the decades!

Too bad you don't have his letters any longer. They would have been an important document to treasure.

[Cato]

From Presto Classical:

This recording hides a remarkable detective story. In 1925–26 the French publisher Heugel brought out three volumes of 24 songs by the young Russian composer Alexander Tcherepnin (1899–1977), all setting poems by the 'Acmeist' Russian poet, Sergei Gorodetsky (1884–1967) – Tcherepnin's Opp. 15, 16 and 17. Not until 2014, when Tatyana Kebuladze, the pianist on this recording, examined the composer's manuscript in the archives of the Sacher Foundation in Basel was it realised that those three recueils were the tips of a much larger iceberg: a cycle of 35 settings of the 37 poems in Gorodetsky's collection My Flowering Staff, plus an anonymous epilogue – one of the most extensive song-cycles in musical history. The songs themselves are audibly in the tradition of Tchaikovsky and other such Romantic Russian composers, but with a degree of psychological insight conveyed through the harmonic piquancy typical of the new century.

Russian-American soprano Inna Dukach made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2018 in the title role of Madama Butterfly, and in 2010 she made her debut with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Musetta in La bohème. Born in Moscow, she was raised in New York, earning an undergraduate degree in Psychology from Smith College in Massachusetts, and her Masters in Vocal Performance at Mannes College of Music in New York. After winning the 2005 Liederkranz Competition, she joined the roster of New York City Opera and sang Mimi in La bohème there for two consecutive seasons in 2006 and 2007. This album marks her recording debut.

A native of Kyiv, the pianist Tatyana Kebuladze studied with Tamia Kozlova, and graduated from the Glière State Music College in her home town, the alma mater of Vladimir Horowitz. Arriving in America in 1998, she continued her studies, earning a Master of Music degree at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where she now serves on the piano faculty.

See:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8771203--tcherepnin-my-flowering-staff

[Cato]

FINALLY!  After 2 months of waiting, this CD arrived today.  A cycle of 35-songs which were not known to be a cycle!

It seems that selections from the 35 were published in 3 groups by a French music company, and about a dozen remained unknown, resting in the manuscript in a Swiss archive until they were rediscovered in 2014.

I have not yet heard the entire CD, but song #16 (one of the previously unknown songs: In the Evening's Quiet Hour ) alone is worth the price and the wait!  A three-minute song that is one of the most spiritual, most enchanting, most affecting things I have ever heard.


[asin] B085RQN2N8[/asin]

[Cato]

FINALLY!  After 2 months of waiting, this CD arrived today.  A cycle of 35-songs which were not known to be a cycle!

It seems that selections from the 35 were published in 3 groups by a French music company, and about a dozen remained unknown, resting in the manuscript in a Swiss archive until they were rediscovered in 2014.

I have not yet heard the entire CD, but song #16 (one of the previously unknown songs: In the Evening's Quiet Hour ) alone is worth the price and the wait!  A three-minute song that is one of the most spiritual, most enchanting, most affecting things I have ever heard.


[asin] B085RQN2N8[/asin]

I have now heard the entire CD more than once (c. 55 minutes): the work is masterful throughout, and as one might expect, the songs which had been unpublished for c. 90 years number among the best in the cycle!

The poems by Gorodetsky have their own attraction: seemingly straight-forward, they easily deliver a path into spiritual puzzlement.  One might think of the cycle as a quasi-Pierrot Lunaire: the songs are very short, 1 to 2 minutes, and the piano acts more like a Greek chorus commenting on the text, rather than offering the singer a harmonic background.  Tcherepnin, however, has his own interests in exotic scales and his own ideas on polyphony (e.g. his "Interpoint" style was being developed, which stressed the independence of musical lines), and is not following Expressionistische Musik from which (according to one source) he was isolated during the composition of the work in Tbilisi (1920-1921).

Highly recommended!

[Karl Henning]

Très interessant!

[Karl Henning]

I have now heard the entire CD more than once (c. 55 minutes): the work is masterful throughout, and as one might expect, the songs which had been unpublished for c. 90 years number among the best in the cycle!

The poems by Gorodetsky have their own attraction: seemingly straight-forward, they easily deliver a path into spiritual puzzlement.  One might think of the cycle as a quasi-Pierrot Lunaire: the songs are very short, 1 to 2 minutes, and the piano acts more like a Greek chorus commenting on the text, rather than offering the singer a harmonic background.  Tcherepnin, however, has his own interests in exotic scales and his own ideas on polyphony (e.g. his "Interpoint" style was being developed, which stressed the independence of musical lines), and is not following Expressionistische Musik from which (according to one source) he was isolated during the composition of the work in Tbilisi (1920-1921).

Highly recommended!

This is indeed exquisite!

[Cato]

A review about the Three Generations CD with chamber music by Nicolai, Alexander, and Ivan Tcherepnin:



https://arcana.fm/2022/09/15/tcherepnin-generations/

Concerning the Nicolai Tcherepnin works:

"...Cannily representative of either end of his creativity, Poème Lyrique exudes a demonstrably fin-de-siècle Romanticism in its emotional flights of fancy within an already heightened expressive context, while Andante and Finale finds the aging composer looking back with affection – just a little tinged with regret – to an era four decades passed. If the former piece admits of impressionist elements, the latter looks to the full-blooded manner of Russia's 'silver age' in its bracing energy and ultimate extroversion...."

[kyjo]

A. Tcherepnin is a composer who tends to "fall between the cracks", even here at GMG, but his best works certainly deserve more attention. His "exotic" Symphony no. 3 Chinese and Piano Concerto no.
4 Fantasie represent him at his most colorful, imaginative, and memorable. Some of his other works have a more modernist, Stravinskian bent, such as the first two symphonies (the first is notable for its percussion-only scherzo). I have very fond memories of performing his delightful, tuneful Songs and Dances for cello and piano on a recital a few years ago.