Galina Vichnevskaïa

The title of ECM's release of works by three composers born in the former Soviet Union perfectly captures the mood of the CD – it is truly mysterious. Although more than half a century separates the first of these pieces from the most recent, they share a sense of otherness that defies easy explanation. The pieces are not so much mysterious in the sense of being eerie (although there are several moments that might raise the hairs on the back of your neck if you were listening alone in the dark); they are unsettling because they raise more questions than they answer.

Valery Gergiev directs the Kirov Opera and Ballet in this magnificent 1998 production of Borodin’s "Prince Igor", presented in a new Mariinsky Theatre performing edition and featuring Mikhail Fokine’s original choreography in the famous Polovtsian Dances. Its four acts tell of the struggle between the Russians and Polovtsian nomads, of Prince Igor’s capture and escape from his noble opponent, Khan Konchak, and of love between Igor’s son, Vladimir, and Konchak’s daughter, Konchakovna.

The great Russian bear has disgorged another magnificent voice. To encounter Galina Gorchakova for the first time, as I did, in the intimate surroundings of Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall was a hair-raising experience nobody would be likely to forget. Her blazing soprano has conquered audiences in the opera-house and, though the recordings which followed – such as Mazeppa (DG, 1/94) and Prince Igor (Philips, 4/95) – have sometimes raised doubts, they are not enough to obscure the essential message: Gorchakova promises to be one of the vocal giants of her generation.

Galina Ustvolskaya - Kopatchinskaja, Hinterhauser, Bieri (2014) {ECM New Series 2329}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 222 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 163 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 30 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2014 ECM Records | ECM New Series 2329 / 481 0883
Classical / Contemporary Classical / Chamber Music / Piano / Violin / Clarinet

The unique expressiveness of the work of Galina Ustvolskaya (1919-2006) speaks to the listener with directness and nuanced layers of sound, the powerful, rhythmic stringency of the music testifying to the relentlessness of her vision. Fiercely independent, Ustvolskaya maintained that her music sounded like the work of no other composer, living or dead, and put herself outside all stylistic “schools”. Her work, said Viktor Suslin, has the "narrowness of a laser beam capable of piercing metal."

Galina Ustvolskaya - The Complete Piano Sonatas - Frank Denyer (1995) {Conifer Classics 75605512622}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 221 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 183 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 42 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1995 Conifer Classics | 75605 51262 2
Classical / Contemporary Classical / Piano

This performance is excellent. The booklet gives you some interesting insights written by Mr Denyer. This version is approved by the composer herself. So what else do you need? The six piano sonatas by Galina Ustvolskaya were composed over the course of 43 years – each showing a gradual progression of the composer's style.

Though born in Ukraine, composer Galina Grigorjeva has lived in Estonia since 1992 and has worked within that country's deep tradition of sacred choral music. She studied music in Tallinn in the mid-'90s, and her music is thus interesting in terms of representing the thoughts of a younger generation that has absorbed the holy minimalism of Arvo Pärt as well as a variety of other styles from the Slavic world and beyond. Indeed, the unifying stylistic thread of the six works on the album can be hard to find, and indeed the booklet notes by Saale Karede point to "the living light that glows through the music," most of it religious.

The choral music of Galina Grigorjeva – born in Simferopol in Ukraine in 1962 and based in Tallinn, in Estonia, since 1994 – is deeply rooted in the traditions of the Orthodox Church and in ancient Russian and Slavonic folklore. Although clearly by a contemporary composer, her works have a timeless, even hypnotic, quality that seems to reach back through the ages. She has been working with the Estonian National Male Choir – one of the finest in a country full of choirs – for some years now, and some of the works here were composed or arranged specifically for this recording.