Lesser known Russian/Soviet composers

Started by vandermolen, July 13, 2008, 02:43:48 PM

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shirime

Quote from: vandermolen on October 15, 2018, 12:47:57 AM
You might enjoy the music of Dobrinka Tabakova (Bulgarian/British rather than Russian) - a recommendation from John (Mirror Image) from this forum. Not sure it is what you mean but might be worth sampling on You Tube for example.

I remember him mentioning her name a fair bit back when he was a little more active. I don't think I ever did take much time to listen to her stuff, unfortunately!

vandermolen

Quote from: shirime on October 15, 2018, 04:09:32 AM
I remember him mentioning her name a fair bit back when he was a little more active. I don't think I ever did take much time to listen to her stuff, unfortunately!

The Cello Concerto is very soulful:
[asin]B00AWXZA0K[/asin]
"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).

André

Didn't find a thread about him and didn't go through all 16 pages of this thread, so here's my bottle at sea:

Opinions on Vyacheslav Artyomov' music ?

His works seem to be enjoying a vogue of sorts, with recordings by Kitayenko, Currentzis, Ashkenazy, Rozhdestvensky, Sondeckis (impressive line up of advocates).  I'm curious but a bit reticent to explore works titled A Garland of Recitations, A Sonata of Meditations, A Symphony of Elegies, On the Threshold of a Bright World, etc...

A russian John Tavener ? Thanks for your comments !

vandermolen

Quote from: André on January 09, 2019, 07:11:01 AM
Didn't find a thread about him and didn't go through all 16 pages of this thread, so here's my bottle at sea:

Opinions on Vyacheslav Artyomov' music ?

His works seem to be enjoying a vogue of sorts, with recordings by Kitayenko, Currentzis, Ashkenazy, Rozhdestvensky, Sondeckis (impressive line up of advocates).  I'm curious but a bit reticent to explore works titled A Garland of Recitations, A Sonata of Meditations, A Symphony of Elegies, On the Threshold of a Bright World, etc...

A russian John Tavener ? Thanks for your comments !
Never heard of him. 'The Way to Olympus' looks interesting. One more for me to explore!
"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).

André

One of my spies found my bottle and I should be able to hear the Requiem  ;D. Might take a little while, but I'll report.

vandermolen

Quote from: André on January 09, 2019, 09:21:18 AM
One of my spies found my bottle and I should be able to hear the Requiem  ;D. Might take a little while, but I'll report.
Excellent!  8)
"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).

Christo

Quote from: vandermolen on January 09, 2019, 08:25:32 AM
Never heard of him. 'The Way to Olympus' looks interesting. One more for me to explore!
Survived an Artyomov Festival in Amsterdam, about twenty years ago, the composer (dominantly) present and Mrs. Artyomov reciting Russian verse with a connection to the music. He was 'famous' during the Yeltsin years, but we heard less of him since then.
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

vandermolen

Quote from: Christo on January 15, 2019, 11:56:32 PM
Survived an Artyomov Festival in Amsterdam, about twenty years ago, the composer (dominantly) present and Mrs. Artyomov reciting Russian verse with a connection to the music. He was 'famous' during the Yeltsin years, but we heard less of him since then.
Thanks
'Survived' sounds like you didn't think much of the music.
"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).

vandermolen

#308
Great (IMO) epic war-time score (1940-1950):
Vladimir Scherbachov (1889-1952)
Symphony 5
Review:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2010/June10/Scherbachov_5_NFPMA9970.htm
"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).

André

Quote from: vandermolen on January 16, 2019, 12:35:08 AM
Thanks
'Survived' sounds like you didn't think much of the music.

I can sympathize. The disc I listened to was horrible  :(.

JBS

Quote from: vandermolen on May 14, 2019, 09:56:03 AM
Great (IMO) epic war-time score (1940-1950):
Vladimir Scherbachov (1889-1952)
Symphony 5
Review:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2010/June10/Scherbachov_5_NFPMA9970.htm

Wikipedia (Anglophone version at least) has a number of Scherbakovs, including a pianist/composer grand nephew of Kabalevsky (Vasily), the pianist Konstantin, several soccer players, military experts, a couple of oligarchic types (one of whom may have been murdered)...but no composer named Vladimir. Any online resource about him?

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Roy Bland

Quote from: JBS on May 14, 2019, 03:29:11 PM
Wikipedia (Anglophone version at least) has a number of Scherbakovs, including a pianist/composer grand nephew of Kabalevsky (Vasily), the pianist Konstantin, several soccer players, military experts, a couple of oligarchic types (one of whom may have been murdered)...but no composer named Vladimir. Any online resource about him?
Sadly in spanish:
https://www.historiadelasinfonia.es/naciones/la-sinfonia-en-rusia/los-compositores-mas-notables-1/scherbachov/

vandermolen

#312
Quote from: JBS on May 14, 2019, 03:29:11 PM
Wikipedia (Anglophone version at least) has a number of Scherbakovs, including a pianist/composer grand nephew of Kabalevsky (Vasily), the pianist Konstantin, several soccer players, military experts, a couple of oligarchic types (one of whom may have been murdered)...but no composer named Vladimir. Any online resource about him?

All I could find:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Shcherbachov
The Northern Flowers CD booklet has the most info.
However, the Symphony 5 and Nonet are on You Tube.
The comments under the You Tube Symphony 5 are very positive.
I collected a number of those Northern Flowers releases but this one was by far the greatest discovery for me.
"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).

Cato

Quote from: André on January 09, 2019, 07:11:01 AM
Didn't find a thread about him and didn't go through all 16 pages of this thread, so here's my bottle at sea:

Opinions on Vyacheslav Artyomov's music ?

  I'm curious but a bit reticent to explore works titled A Garland of Recitations, A Sonata of Meditations, A Symphony of Elegies, On the Threshold of a Bright World, etc...

A Russian John Tavener ? Thanks for your comments !


Quote from: Christo on January 15, 2019, 11:56:32 PM

Survived an Artyomov Festival in Amsterdam, about twenty years ago, the composer (dominantly) present and Mrs. Artyomov reciting Russian verse with a connection to the music. He was 'famous' during the Yeltsin years, but we heard less of him since then.


Quote from: vandermolen on January 16, 2019, 12:35:08 AM

'Survived' sounds like you didn't think much of the music.


Quote from: André on May 14, 2019, 03:04:19 PM

I can sympathize. The disc I listened to was horrible  :(.


This morning I listened to about half of the Requiem by Artyomov which I had downloaded some weeks ago.

At first I was enthused, but a "sameness" in the work began to be overbearing, along with a feeling of "That's c.1950's - 1960's Penderecki and/or Ligeti."

So I can understand the negative reaction: I want to finish the work tomorrow, and a hear a few other things to get a better taste of his output.

"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

JBS

Quote from: Roy Bland on May 14, 2019, 06:49:41 PM
Sadly in spanish:
https://www.historiadelasinfonia.es/naciones/la-sinfonia-en-rusia/los-compositores-mas-notables-1/scherbachov/

Quote from: vandermolen on May 14, 2019, 09:07:04 PM
All I could find:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Shcherbachov
The Northern Flowers CD booklet has the most info.
However, the Symphony 5 and Nonet are on You Tube.
The comments under the You Tube Symphony 5 are very positive.
I collected a number of those Northern Flowers releases but this one was by far the greatest discovery for me.

Thank you both. My Spanish must be better than I realized: I was able to figure out almost all that page.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

André

Cross-posted from the WAYLT thread

Quote


String Quartet (1974)
Sonata for Violin and Cello (1975)
Flute Concerto (1977)
Symphony no 7 (1980)

The name would lead one to think Parsadanian (1925-1997) is an armenian composer, but it's far more complex than that. He was born in Russia near Armenia, studied in Moscow and settled in Estonia where he stayed for the last 44 years of his life, first as an orchestral musician, a student of Eino Heller and as a composer. He is buried in the Talinn cemetary. The recordings in this disc hail from Estonian Radio. There is nothing specifically armenian in the idiom - if one is to go by composers such as Khatchaturian or Hovhanness - by which I mean his musical language is not folk or ethnic oriented.

Each work here is strongly profiled and quite original, with some truly outstanding moments, like the slow movements of the quartet and the concerto. The stern, moving symphony is an homage to the recently deceased Khatchaturian (as a violinist, Parsadanian was an ardent advocate of his elder's violin concerto). This music is pretty much what one can expect from 'soviet' music from the era, closer to Denisov and Schnittke than Khatchaturian or Khrennikov, more modern than traditional. Quite a nice assemblage of works and performances.

vandermolen

#316
Quote from: André on September 30, 2019, 04:15:15 PM
Cross-posted from the WAYLT thread

I have this CD which I enjoyed, especially the Symphony in Memory of the 26 Commissars of Baku. I was interested to read that Parsadanian studied with Heino Eller, a composer I much admire, in Estonia:
"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).

vandermolen

#317

This has been one of the most rewarding CDs in the Northern Flowers series.
I liked all three works very much. At first I thought that it might be a case of 'Shostakovich without the tunes' but I was quite wrong and found much of the material memorable. Yevlakhov's Symphony 3 was influenced by his terrible experiences in the besieged city of Leningrad in World War Two and is a darkly moving and searching work. The other two symphonies are just as enjoyable in different ways. The Slonimsky symphony reminded me at times of Charles Ives!
"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).

Roy Bland


vandermolen

"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).