by Ben Hogwood picture (c) Jack Mitchell/Getty Images
On this day in 1987 the premiere of Philip Glass‘ Violin Concerto no.1 took place, played by Paul Zukofsky and with the American Composers Orchestra under Dennis Russell Davies.
The piece has established itself as one of Glass’s most popular works in concert, and can be heard below in its first recording, made by Gidon Kremer for Deutsche Grammophon:
Published post no.2,495 – Saturday 5 April 2025
Myaskovsky
Six Poems of Alexander Blok Op. 20 (1920)
At the Decline of Day: Three Sketches to Words by Fyodor Tyutchev Op.21 (1922)
Three Sketches Op.45 (1938)
From the Lyric Poetry of Stepan Shchipachyov Op. 52 (1940) Songs of Many Years Op.87 (1901-1936, rev. 1950) – nos.1, 6, 7 & 10
Two Songs of Polar Explorers (1939)
Ilya Kuzmin (baritone, Op.20, Op.45), Dzambolat Dulaev (baritone, all other songs), Olga Solovieva (piano)
Toccata Classics TOCC0667 [62’44”] Russian (Cyrillic) texts and English translations included
Producer and Engineer Ilya Dontsov
Recorded 2018-2022
Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse
What’s the story?
Toccata Classics continues its estimable coverage of the songs by Nikolay Myaskovsky with a second volume devoted to those for baritone which, in term of its performances, sound and annotations, is no less successful as a demonstration of the composer’s prowess in this genre.
What’s the music like?
Myaskovsky composed some 120 songs, with roughly half written early in his career before the symphony was central to his thinking. The first two collections here emerged between his Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, a traumatic time personally and culturally with civil war having engulfed the Soviet Union. Hence that darkly fatalistic aura which pervades the Six Poems of Alexander Blok, its texts drawn from this poet’s early maturity at the tune of the 20th century and framed by two of Myaskovsky’s finest songs: the bittersweet A full moon has risen over the meadow and the speculative In the silent night. Written soon afterwards, At the Decline of Day features three ‘sketches’ after Fyodor Tyutchev whose brevity only accentuates their expressive acuity – notably the central setting ‘Your friendly voice prompts no living spark’.
Over a decade on and Three Sketches finds Myaskovsky tackling poetry with whose Socialist Realism he could have had little empathy, though his setting of Lev Kvitko’s A Conversation evinces a wistful poise hardly warranted by the text. This quality is more gainfully employed in From the Lyric Poetry of Stepan Shchipachyov, not least for the way the composer invests often wantonly propagandist texts with that sense of imaginative wonder that may have been their desired intention all along – as is evident from such as Mount Elbrus and the Aeroplane. Although published as Myaskovsky’s last opus, Songs of Many Years collates 15 songs which had been written often many years before. Of the four heard here, Thus yearns the soul finds the 20-year-old setting Aleksey Koľtsov’s text with due awareness of its aspirational ardency, while the baleful Sonnet of Michelangelo makes pertinent comparison with Shostakovich’s version 65 years on. The first two from Four Songs of Polar Explorers offer a distinctive take on the ‘mass song’, of which the rousing Song of the Polar Sailors audibly fulfils its remit.
Does it all work?
Yes, providing one accepts that Myaskovsky was not a composer of songs given to extremes of emotion or flights of fancy in those texts he chose to set. Such a tendency to introspection could easily have been over-emphasized through allotting this selection solely to the baritone register, and it is a tribute to Ilya Kuzmin and Dzambolat Dulaev that any risk of expressive uniformity is wholly avoided – the former as unforced in his eloquence as the latter renders his often more impersonal settings with a light and flexible touch. Both singers here benefit from Olga Solovieva’s perceptive accompaniment, confirming her once again as a pianist of no little finesse. The texts and translations for all of these 28 songs have been included, and though some may regret the absence of transliterations, they can mostly be accessed online.
Is it recommended?
Very much so, and not least as Patrick Zuk’s booklet note sets the scene so thoroughly yet evocatively. Warmly recommended and, with just over a third of Myaskovsky’s songs now recorded, this is hopefully a series that Toccata will be able to see through to its completion.
Listen & Buy
For purchase options, you can visit the Toccata Classics website. For information on the performers, click on the names to read more about Ilya Kuzmin, Dzambolat Dulaev and Olga Solovieva – and composer Nikolay Myaskovsky
Published post no.2,493 – Thursday 3 April 2025
by Ben Hogwood
What’s the story?
Bureau B describe this compilation, put together by Charles Bals, as “a journey into otherworldly sounds from the years 1983 – 2000”, a journey that takes in a wide range of artists and musical styles. From Patrick Ryder’s notes, “Ambientale sees Charles leave the human world behind, exploring all the world’s wilderness on the scale of an IMAX epic. Rainforest, savanna, seascape and sand dune blur into one under digital manipulation, questioning the balance of nature and technology and wondering whether AI might discover the blueprint of all life and all planets. There’s also a little room on the mood board for the striking underwater cinematography and lush soundtrack of Luc Besson’s The Big Blue, a film he first saw in 1987 at an open-air theatre in the same Southern French resort that inspired ‘Club Meduse’.
What’s the music like?
Bals has chosen a wide variety of music in all shapes and sizes, but one thing that runs consistently through this compilation is its ability to paint a picture.
There are some striking sounds and vivid pictures here. Akira Mitake‘s duo, Yasha and Modernism, are memorable, typifying the weird and wonderful feel this compilation gives. Greece Ambientale, by Individual Sensitivity, has a cosmopolitan feel, like some of Jean-Michel Jarre’s far out ventures. Steve Shenan‘s evocative Evening In The Sahara has shady detective score overtones, underlaid by a lovely heat haze. The one that sticks in the memory most, however, is the nocturnal, saxophone-led Velvet Blue Circles, mournful yet uplifting like the soundtrack to a David Lynch film.
Does it all work?
Pretty much. The variety here is considerable – so there is a chance that there will be one or two tracks that don’t immediately appeal. Conversely, there will be new discoveries and sounds to enjoy, which is the joy of encountering a compilation like this.
Is it recommended?
It is – for music that’s easy on the ear but also rather different, Ambientale is a really good eye-opener. It will doubtless introduce you to some new names to chase up.
Listen / Buy
For streaming and purchase details, visit the Boomkat website
Published post no.2,493 – Thursday 3 April 2025
Rieti
Piano Concerto no.1 (1926)
Piano Concerto no.2 (1937)
Piano Concerto no.3 (1955)
Concerto for Two Pianos (1951)
Alessandro Marangoni, Orazio Sciortino (pianos), Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano / Giuseppe Grazioli
Naxos 8.564505 [80’27”]
Producer Stefano Barzan Engineer Cinzia Guareschi
Dates: 21-22 August 2022, 17-20 August 2023 (Piano Concerto no.3, Concerto for Two Pianos) at Auditorium di Milano
Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse
What’s the story?
Naxos continues its enterprising 20th Century Italian Classics with the concertante works for piano by Vittorio Rieti (1898-1994), the Egyptian-born Italian composer whose years in Paris then New York and Chicago afforded contact with a range of illustrious musicians and artists.
What’s the music like?
Dedicated to Poulenc and likely inspired by the success of Prokofiev’s Third Concerto earlier that decade, Rieti’s First Piano Concerto brings a deft touch to its ostensible neo-Classicism – whether in the martially-inflected playfulness of its initial Allegro, laconic but also beguiling ambivalence of its central Andantino, or the theatrical high-jinx of a final Allegro whose nod towards jazz rhythm marks this out as a piece decidedly yet always unaffectedly of its time. Seemingly forgotten following its premiere (by the composer?), its revival is well deserved.
Just over a decade on, the Second Piano Concerto emerged from material originally intended for a harpsichord concerto. On a similar scale to its predecessor, the opening Allegro has an impetus that denotes the uncertainty spreading throughout Europe at this time, and which is intensified by the central Adagio with its plangent discourse between soloist and orchestra; a quality the final Allegro (which follows with barely a pause) does not so much overcome as dismiss through an energetic repartee which brings about the nominally affirmative ending.
By the time of his Third Piano Concerto, Rieti was well established in the United States such that the present work is audibly in the lineage of American works for this medium of the post -war era. Any undue portentousness in the introductory Largo is dismissed with the vivacious Allegro that follows, then the central Andantino confirms that, while Rieti’s idiom might not have altered substantially over his career, it gained in subtlety and depth. Any more ominous expression is avoided in the final Allegro as it wends a capricious course to its decisive close.
Written in the wake of his relocation to the USA, the Two-Piano Concerto helped to establish Rieti’s reputation in a very different cultural climate. There is little moderate about either the tempo or character of the impetuous opening Allegro, then the central Allegretto comprises a set of variations’ which takes its unassuming theme through a diverse range of moods without losing focus on route to the pensive close. The final Allegro turns away from any encroaching inwardness with its energetic fugal interplay such as makes for an ending of pointed defiance.
Does it all work?
It does, provided one accepts Rieti as a product of his age rather than trailblazer or innovator. Stravinsky, Prokofiev and even Jean Françaix are prominent in the stylistic mix, with a more tensile aspect derived from Copland in the works of his American years. Not that this should offset enjoyment of music that feels never less than communicative and often engagingly so, particularly as regards the latter two pieces. Both of these were recorded way back in the LP era, but to have all four works rendered in such sympathetic readings is hardly to be gainsaid.
Is it recommended?
It is, not least when Alessandro Marangoni (alongside Orazio Sciortino) is so attuned to this music, while Giuseppe Grazioli obtains a committed response from the Milan orchestra. The succinct booklet notes are highly informative and further enhance the appeal of this release.
Listen & Buy
For purchase options, you can visit the Naxos website. For information on the performers, click on the names to read more about Alessandro Marangoni, Orazio Sciortino, Giuseppe Grazioli and the Orchestra Sinfonica Milano. An interview between Vittorio Rieti and Bruce Duffie can be read here
Published post no.2,492 – Wednesday 2 April 2025
by Ben Hogwood
Yesterday we learned of the sad news of the death of Mexican conductor Enrique Bátiz. A flourishing pianist, Bátiz soon turned to conducting, and in 1971 was founder of the State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra. where he worked until 1983, at which point he became music director of the Mexico Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1984 he became principal guest conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, a post he held for several years.
Below is a link to a Tidal playlist containing a number of his colourful orchestral recordings, including an important series devoted to Mexican classical music on ASV in the 1980s:
https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/0b007840-2fc1-415d-8282-1890abd440b4
Published post no.2,491 – Tuesday 1 April 2025
Arcana.fm 