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Assorted items / YouTube performances / Re: Tikhon Khrennikov Trio for Flute, Oboe and Piano
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on: December 31, 2021, 04:02:06 pm
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Now finally having given the piece a try, I realize that this is a transcription of Khrennikov's Three Pieces for Violin and Piano (or Orchestra) Op. 26 from 1978. The transcription may or may not have been done by the composer himself, but in any case it's not a completely new work.
Many thanks for this clarification. Adaptations, deletions, re-numberings and re-scorings litter many composer's catalogues, as I found with Holbrooke! ::) Having just bought the CPO disc with Holbrooke's Clarinet Quintet (and having read the liner notes to understand how all the pieces on the disc are actually related to each other), I do know what you are talking about!
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Assorted items / Commercial recordings (vintage, new and forthcoming) / Re: Maliszewski Symphonic Works
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on: July 28, 2021, 09:25:08 pm
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I think it is a good idea just to wait a bit. This is still a brandnew release, and often it just takes a while until the physical CDs are available worldwide. This even holds with well-known labels: for instance, I already noted in the past that new CDs from British labels may need one month or so until you can buy them in Germany. As for the Maliszewski set, on the Dux website it is listed as a release in CD format, so that I do believe that sooner or later, everybody will get a chance to buy a physical copy (I also plan to do so).
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MEMBERS' CORNER / Miscellany / Re: National Orchestral Discography Pages prepared by Michael Herman
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on: March 31, 2021, 11:17:35 am
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In fact, I don't think this is "our" Michael Herman. I had quite some personal contact with Mike over the years, and from this I know he was born in 1946 and lives in New York. From the few bits of information I can read from that obituary (without subscribing), this does not seem to be true for the guy in question (who must have been quite a bit older).
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Downloads by surname / Downloads: discussion without links / Re: Turkmen Music
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on: November 08, 2020, 05:02:58 pm
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Robert,
many thanks for your upload indeed! I was not aware of that LP so far.
A few more details: your observation is completely right, the DSCH motif appears in the first movement indeed. Comparing the work to the two other (larger-scale) pieces by Halmamedov I know (namely his "Turkmenistan" symphonic pictures and his Symphony in E Minor, both from the 1960s), the piece certainly demonstrates an evolution in style. The earlier pieces are large colourful orchestral canvases with a strong national flavour, obviously supposed to be pictures of his native land, very enjoyable in fact.
The musical language of this string quartet is less (directly) national, more restrained and certainly shows Shostakovich's influence. I thought of Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8 when listening to the beginning, and this is most certainly not mere coincidence: I read that the quartet also has the title "To the Memory of the Women and Children who were tortured in fascist Dungeons", while Shostakovich's quartet is of course decicated "to the victims of fascism and the war". So there seems to be a direct influence. Whether it was also written in memory of Shostakovich himself is an open question, though I think your hypothesis makes quite sense.
By the way, reading the English wikipedia article on Halmamedov, I see that he was born in 1938 rather than 1940 (commonly used so far) indeed, thanks for this (implicit) information. In today's Turkmenistan (where they now use a Latin alphabet) he is written Nury Halmämmedow.
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Assorted items / Commercial recordings (vintage, new and forthcoming) / Re: Alexander Mosolov: Symphony No. 5 & Harp Concerto
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on: November 07, 2020, 07:59:15 am
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Can anyone explain the very strange title?
Paraphrasing the German article I linked above, the title is not that strange but actually quite describes what this work is above: in the beginning, a gathering of believers is described and a church service is begun, with some quotes of orthodox chants. However, after some time, it is disturbed by a second group of singers, calling for destruction. Sections of struggle (including fugal writing) follow, quoting revolutionary songs (the text mentions the Marseillaise, but if I recall correctly the Internationale and Whirlwinds of Danger / the Warszawianka are heard as well). Finally, both choirs join to celebrate the beginning of a new world without God. Of course, this has to be seen against the background of atheism being the Soviet "state religion", although at the same time it is worth noting that the piece was composed before Socialist Realism was established as the Soviet cultural doctrine. Probably it has to be seen as a late example of early Mosolov, continuing the line of his Iron Foundry and related works.
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Assorted items / Commercial recordings (vintage, new and forthcoming) / Re: Alexander Mosolov: Symphony No. 5 & Harp Concerto
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on: November 01, 2020, 11:12:43 am
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Well, I did some more research on Mosolov and his symphonies and even if the picture does not fully clarify, a few more details have come up nevertheless. First, I realized that a while ago, Colin / Dundonnell also tried to compile a catalogue of Mosolov's orchestral music: http://artmusic.smfforfree.com/index.php/topic,1459.0.htmlAs the three different lists of the symphonies demonstrate, it's really very difficult. At present, I believe the one compiled by Northern Flowers to be most reliable. If so, we should maybe consider the E Major symphony they recorded as No. 1 (with some care, of course). None of these catalogues lists the "Antireligious Symphony", but this is certainly because it was only recently rediscovered. Reading the description of the German radio website I linked above, it gradually dawned me that I may even have this piece. Checking things, I found out that indeed, there is a piece in my collection just labeled "Symphonic Poem on Words by Mayakovsky and Sharov for Soprano, Mezzo Soprano, Choir and Orchestra" from 1931 which has to be the "Antireligious Symphony", even more so since it is performed by the forces the article suggests (Orpheus RSO / Kondrashev). It happens to be available online: https://classical-music-online.net/en/production/178581
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Assorted items / Commercial recordings (vintage, new and forthcoming) / Re: Alexander Mosolov: Symphony No. 5 & Harp Concerto
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on: November 01, 2020, 09:02:48 am
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Quite a while ago, maybe already ten years or so, I had a brief e-mail conversation with Martin Andernson where he mentioned his general interest in a cycle devoted to Peiko's orchestral works, however he also wrote that as always, it was a question of getting it financed. I am afraid things will not have changed meanwhile. Nevertheless, there might be some hope: Toccata have released a number of Soviet rarities in the past years, includig Peiko's piano music of course, but also some orchestral works by Shebalin, Weinberg and others, and they seem to be cooperating with Yuri Abdokov (who has been in charge of the liner notes for their latest Galynin CD, for instance), a pupil of Peiko and Boris Tchaikovsky. We will see. Mosolov's "Antireligious Symphony" (a piece of 30 minutes with chorus, also labeled symphonic poem) has only recently been found in the archives of Soviet radio, it has been performed and apparently also recorded for the radio. Some information can be found here: https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/russland-urauffuehrungen-des-komponisten-mossolow-sorgen.1993.de.html?dram:article_id=397308A German article (if necessary, I can provide some details). As for Robert's suggestions, I should think about my own preferences in more detail. I would certainly also nominate some composers from the republics, i.e. Central Asia and the Caucasus region. As for Levitin, I only recently found out that there has been a 2 LP set with two of his symphonies by Melodiya. I already told Mike Herman and it now appears in his online catalogue (however, it mislabels the unnumbered "Days of War" Symphony as No. 1). Unfortunately, these LPs seem totally elusive.
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Assorted items / Commercial recordings (vintage, new and forthcoming) / Re: Alexander Mosolov: Symphony No. 5 & Harp Concerto
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on: October 31, 2020, 06:53:39 pm
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Yes, I was also very surprised to come across this new CD, there had not been any real signs of a Mosolov revival before. As for the number of the E Major symphony, the liner notes of the Northern Flowers disc do not provide any details on this question and I currently believe the symphony just has no number. There is a catalogue in the German wikipedia on Mosolov's symphonies which I compiled years ago from all information I could gather, but it's far from certain that all details are correct since information is so sparse. Until now, I would not even have dared to bet that these scores actually exist. In any case, the symphonies listed are as follows: - Symphony Op. 20 (1927/28, lost)
- Antireligious Symphony (1931)
- Symphony in E Major (1944)
- Symphony No. 2 in C Major (1946)
- Symphony No. 3 in B flat Major "Song Symphony" (1949/50)
- Symphony in C Major (1959/60)
- Symphony No. 4 in A Minor (1959/60)
- Symphony No. 5 in E Minor (1965)
- Symphony No. 6 (until 1973, unfinished)
So the E Major symphony could be No. 1, but that's not quite clear. There might also be some possibility that the C Major and the A Minor symphonies (No. 4) could coindice, but who knows for sure... Anyway, the composers you suggest would certainly be fine choices! I know that there have been plans to do a Peiko cycle on Toccata Classics, but it's a matter of finances and things seem rather difficult alas.
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Assorted items / Commercial recordings (vintage, new and forthcoming) / Alexander Mosolov: Symphony No. 5 & Harp Concerto
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on: October 31, 2020, 12:06:28 pm
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Naxos will release a new CD with Alexander Mosolov's Symphony No. 5 (1965) and his Harp Concerto (1939) later this year: https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/sinfonie-5-harp-concerto/hnum/10336061Mosolov is of course a classical example of a Soviet composer who had to change his style substantially by force (he was imprisoned for some time in the 1930s). His most famous piece is the short "Iron Foundry" from the unfinished ballet "Steel", a work of just a few minutes suggesting factory noise. In the 1920s and early 1930s, Mosolov's style was pretty radical and more and more atonal (as for instance in his First Piano Concerto). His works after the arrest are completely different and, as I have to say, not very convincing from all I heard so far. Northern Flowers brought out his Symphony in E Major (probably unnumbered) several years ago and in my view, it is a really weak piece, also weaker than "conformist" symphonies by other Soviet composers from those days. Nevertheless, I am happy to get another opportunity of trying some of Mosolov's later output now and will gladly buy this CD once it is available. There are still many open questions about his later works anyway, since the work lists available are partially contradictory, and possibly this release can shed some light on this.
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Assorted items / YouTube performances / Re: Zaborov Symphony No. 1
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on: October 12, 2020, 06:48:40 pm
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The scans Gabriel spoke of can be accessed here: https://www.mediafire.com/view/7sxwi4qer3lxu8b/IMG_9916.jpg/filehttps://www.mediafire.com/view/292ybos3fm3mndm/IMG_9917.jpg/fileI do not speak Russian myself, but nevertheless, as far as I understand this article does provide some biographic information on Zaborov (for instance, he seems to have been a student of Myaskovsky, he was violinist in the orchestra of the Bolshoi theatre from 1950 until 1985, from 1965 as concert master, there seems to be a list of ballets in which he played violin solos, he also had a son, Igor, who lived from 1952 until 2015 and played the violin and composed himself etc.). However, the article does not seem to mention the symphony. Anyway, many thanks to Gabriel for doing research on him! :)
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