performed by Matti Raekallio, or below by Boris Berman In every fleeting vision I see worlds, Filled with the fickle play of rainbows Konstantin Balmont (cover image by Joel Filipe) It’s not ‘visions of fugitives.’ Prokofiev wrote his Visions Fugitives from … Continue reading Prokofiev: Visions Fugitives, op. 22
performed by the Novosibirsk “Filarmonica” String Quartet (cover image by Zach Reiner) Roslavets again, this time in what I find to be a far more compelling piece. We discussed last week that Roslavets, as if nearly disappearing from the face of … Continue reading Roslavets String Quartet no. 1
performed by Olga Andryushchenko, or below by someone who is not Olga Andryushchenko (cover image by Roman Mavrin) Scriabin’s influence can be heard in earlier works, and a constant search for fresh sound constellations resulted in Roslavets’ invention of influential new … Continue reading Roslavets: Three Compositions
performed by Manuel Ignacio de Íñigo, or below by Stanislav Neuhaus (cover image by Mike Sharp) Scriabin’s op. 45 dates from 1904, putting it between the fourth and fifth sonatas. In this work, you can still hear the kind of … Continue reading Scriabin: Trois Morceaux, op. 45
performed by Carolyn Huebl, violin; Mark Wait, piano (You can find this recording on Spotify, or with different performers on SoundCloud, but probably only if you’re in the U.S.) (cover image by Jez Timms) Alfred Schnittke published four violin concertos … Continue reading Schnittke Violin Sonata (1955)
preformed by the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra under Mariss Jansons, or below by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy It is the creation of a genial mind laboring in a field well known and loved by it, but not … Continue reading Revisit: Rachmaninoff Symphony no. 3 in A minor, op. 44
performed by the New Philharmonia Orchestra under Riccardo Muti, or in a superb recording by the Oslo Philharmonic under Mariss Jansons (cover image by Serge Kutuzov) It’s been a while since we’ve seen any Tchaikovsky (a little over a year) and even … Continue reading Tchaikovsky Symphony no. 2 in Cm, op. 17 ‘Little Russian’
performed by Boris Berman and the Vermeer Quartet, or as below (with the composer’s wife at the piano) I had to take what I wrote from imaginary spaces defined in terms of sound and put it into the psychological space … Continue reading Schnittke Quintet for Piano and Strings
performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under Leif Segerstam, or below by the USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra under Gennady Rozhdestvensky While composing the symphony for four years, I simultaneously worked on the music to M. Romm‘s film I Believe…. … Continue reading Schnittke Symphony no. 1
performed by Yo-Yo Ma and Emmanuel Ax, or below by Rostropovich and Richter (cover photo by Aaron Burden) Prokofiev’s cello sonata in C major is not to be confused with the sonata for solo cello in C# minor. That’s a … Continue reading Prokofiev Cello Sonata in C major, op. 119
performed by Shlomo Mintz and Yefim Bronfman, or below by Oistrakh and Oborin (cover photo by Jace Grandinetti) Confusingly, Prokofiev’s violin sonata no. 1 was completed two years after his violin sonata no. 2, which originates from his flute sonata … Continue reading Prokofiev Violin Sonata no. 1 In F minor, op. 80
performed by the Emerson String Quartet, or below by the Pavel Haas Quartet (cover image by Tamara Menzi) Indeed, the material proved to be fresh and original… I settled on writing a string quartet, thinking that the combination of new, … Continue reading Prokofiev String Quartet no. 2 in F, op. 92
performed by Anne Sophie Von Otter, Ian Bostridge, Deborah York, Bryn Terfel, et al., the London Symphony Orchestra, and Monteverdi Choir under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, or below in this recording led by Kent Nagano For idle hearts and hands and … Continue reading Stravinsky: The Rake’s Progress
performed by the Emerson String Quartet, or below by the Borodin Quartet Although this is only the third of the composer’s fifteen completed string quartets, it’s not an early work by any means. In fact, it comes after the composer’s ninth symphony, op. 70, … Continue reading Shostakovich String Quartet No. 3 in F major, op. 73
performed by the “Soloists, Chorus & Orchestra Of The Moscow Chamber Theatre” and the Leningrad Philharmonic under Gennady Rozhdestvensky, or below (in English) by the Royal Opera conducted by Ingo Metzmacher The Nose loses all meaning if it is seen just as a … Continue reading Shostakovich: The Nose
performed by Gregory Hustis, horn; Steven Harlos, piano Here’s something you might not have heard. We’ve featured Scriabin and his work on the blog before, and it’s almost all been for piano (or with orchestra; this is amazing; and his actual piano concerto [already more than … Continue reading Scriabin: Romance for Horn and Piano
With the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra under 莊文貞 We have managed to get through three of Prokofiev’s five piano concertos here on the blog, the first a lighter, brief piece in contrast with the monstrously, heavy, immensely challenging second, and then … Continue reading Alexei Volodin and ESO: Prokofiev Piano Concertos
So in case you didn’t know, and it seems virtually no one did, I spent the month of February listening to a symphony a day from Nikolai Myaskovsky. February has 28 days, and Myaskovsky has 27 symphonies and three sinfoniettas. I tweeted … Continue reading A Month of Myaskovsky
performed by Truls Mørk and the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Mariss Jansons, or below with Mstislav Rostropovich and the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy (or in a preferred recording with Rostropovich and the London Symphony under Charles Groves) This work is just… … Continue reading Shostakovich Cello Concerto no. 1 in E-flat, op. 107
performed by the WDR Sinfonie-Orchester under Rudolph Barshai There’s something epic and final and mysterious about ninth symphonies, isn’t there? Beethoven! Schubert (give or take)! Bruckner (roughly)! Dvorak! Mahler! They’ve come to mean something final in a composer’s output, his (give or … Continue reading Shostakovich Symphony no. 9 in E-flat major, op. 70
performed by Boris Berman and the Vermeer Quartet, or below by the Borodin trio and Mimi Zweig (violin), Jerry Horner (viola) The Gm piano quintet, one of the composer’s most enduring chamber works, comes right after the composer’s sixth symphony, … Continue reading Shostakovich Piano Quintet in G minor, op. 57