Making Music at The Piano

We’ve had several releases in recent years of works by the likes of Lourié, Roslavets, Wyschnegradsky, Deshevov, and Popov: forgotten composers demonstrating an inspired level of early Soviet Era music-making in styles that were subsequently abandoned. Leonid Polovinkin (1894–1949) is apparently next up for rediscovery. In 1914, he entered the Moscow Conservatory, graduating a decade later, and began two years of post-graduate work. He then taught orchestration and analysis at his alma mater for six years before joining the Moscow Central Children’s Theater as music director. Like Roslavets, Polovinkin was an active member of the radical Association for Contemporary Music (ACM), and even created several “collectivist” works—such as The Four Moscows, with Mosolov, Alexandrov, and Shostakovich, and a symphonic Prologue with Mosolov, Roslavets, and Shostakovich.

RCO - Anthology of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Vol 1, 1935-1950 (2002) {13CD Box Set Q Disc 97017, Limited Edition}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 3.25 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 2.04 Gb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 460 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1935-50, 2002 Radio Netherlands Music / Q Disc | 97017
Classical / Orchestral / Symphony / Romantic / Early 20th Century

Böhm was reported to have told the Wiener Philharmoniker towards the end of his life "I loved you as one can only love a woman". Listening to this boxset, capturing the Concertgebouworkest at the peak of its powers (between 1935 and June 1941), still at a commendable level (between July 1941 and 1944) before having to rebuild from the ashes of war (1945 to 1947) to finally come back to the highest level (1949-1950), the careful auditor has history in the making unfolding with its drama, its joys, but essentially its incommensurable beauty.

Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) is Denmark's most famous composer. He studied with Niels Wilhelm Gade at Copenhagen Conservatory and went on study trips to Germany, Austria, Italy and France. Nielsen was court music director in Copenhagen and taught at the Royal Danish Conservatory. His works display strong counterpoint and polytonality as well as traditional melody shapes.

A real rarity from Hyperion’s Anglo-Australian artistic collaboration: music by an Australian composer who was once at the heart of the English establishment. Malcolm Williamson was one of many Australian creative artists who relocated to Britain in the mid-twentieth century. Within a decade of settling in London he had established a reputation as one of the most gifted and prolific composers of his generation. His stature as a leading figure within the British music scene was publicly acknowledged in 1975 when he was appointed to the esteemed post of Master of the Queen’s Music in succession to Sir Arthur Bliss. But today he is almost forgotten and his music virtually never performed.