Generation Z: A Century in The Making

This recording revives long-forgotten sonorities that once would have been very familiar: the sound of piano and organ being played together. It also presents a Sibelius premiere: the arrangement by Sigfird Karg-Elert of the suite from Pelléas and Mélisande. As the popularity of domestic music-making grew through the nineteenth century, it brought first the piano and, then, often the harmonium into well-off living-rooms across the western world. Composers naturally responded, with original works and arrangements: Sibelius Andante cantabile was written after a visit to relatives who had both instruments in their salon.

In 1991, composers Elena Firsova and Dmitri Smirnov were amongst a small group of composers, including Sofia Gubaidulina, blacklisted in Russia. Firsova and Smirnov fled the country with their two young children and took refuge in the UK. Since then, their daughter, Alissa Firsova, now aged 31, has risen to become one of the most notable stars of the new composing generation working in Britain.