|
Gauk
|
 |
« on: August 29, 2015, 10:40:03 pm » |
|
I was browsing in my local music shop recently when I came upon a two-CD set of the complete symphonies of Vadim Salmanov. Never having heard of such a person, I naturally picked it up.
Salmanov seems to be a figure that has slipped through the cracks of musical history. There is no mention of him in any post on this site before today. And he gets no mention in Krebs's study of Soviet composers. Yet he seems to have been well-connected; the first symphony is dedicated to Mravinsky and the second to Shostakovich.
Slonimsky writes of him that his early music is harmonically akin to Prokofiev and Shostakovich, but that in later life he experimented with dodecophony. Which is true, but while the third symphony opens with a twelve-note row, the work is still given a key signature of A minor.
The recordings are all taken from radio broadcasts of live concerts, and if I mention that the broadcast of the first symphony dates from 1957, you can imagine how bad the sound quality is, especially in the louder passages. The later ones fare better and the last is even in stereo. All are conducted by Mravinsky.
It would be interesting if anyone were to take up his music today, and record modern performances. Given the uptake of interest in Weinberg in recent years, I don't see why not, and in fact, Weinberg is the composer I am most reminded of in listening to Salmanov. His symphonies are not in the formulaic Soviet model, and are worth hearing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Elroel
|
|
« Reply #1 on: August 31, 2015, 11:17:37 am » |
|
Gauk, you're talking about the Melodiya double-cd, I think.
His 2nd is also available on Audiophile Classics 528.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gauk
|
|
« Reply #3 on: August 31, 2015, 04:35:04 pm » |
|
It seems the site search facility is unreliable, because I did try a search and it came up with no matches ... hmm, maybe it didn't search the whole site. Yes, it is the Melodiya set.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dundonnell
|
|
« Reply #4 on: August 31, 2015, 05:29:37 pm » |
|
It seems the site search facility is unreliable, because I did try a search and it came up with no matches ... hmm, maybe it didn't search the whole site. Yes, it is the Melodiya set.
Yes...to do a complete search one has to use the "Search" box on the home page (rather than for a specific forum). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
