Maria Ivanova

The works of the outstanding composer César Cui (1835–1918), whose name will forever be remembered in music history, are yet to be rediscovered and fully appreciated. Cui was a rare type, one of those universal prodigies who throughout his career combined seemingly irreconcilable talents as an artist and military academic. Cui’s life was shaped by an astonishingly unique outlook that was predisposed to an organic synthesis of various cultural traditions and styles. He was a member of The Five, the group of Russian composers led by Mily Balakirev dedicated to the production of a specifically Russian type of music. This album contains piano transcriptions of three of his finest works- his Suite No. 2 op. 38, his Miniatures op. 20, and his Miniatures op. 39. Performing these pieces are fine pianists Maria Ivanova and Alexander Zagarinskiy.

Il barbiere di Siviglia, ovvero La precauzione inutile (The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution) is a comic opera by Giovanni Paisiello from a libretto by Giuseppe Petrosellini, even though his name is not identified on the score's title page. The opera was first performed on 26 September 1782 (old Russian calendar, 15 September) at the Imperial Court, Saint Petersburg. It was adapted from the play Le Barbier de Séville of Pierre Beaumarchais. The full title for the opera reads: "Il barbiere di Siviglia, ovvero La Precauzione inutile, dramma giocoso per musica tradotto liberamente dal francese, da rappresentarsi nel Teatro Imperiale del corte, l'anno 1782".

That's right, King! in Swedish, "Kong" rather than "Drottning"! Christina (1626-1689) was the only surviving child of Sweden's greatest monarch Gustavus Adolphus Vasa, who raised her to rule as a king and whose ministers executed his will by crowning the six-year-old girl King! Christina ruled under a regency until age 18, and then personally and earnestly over some eight years until her abdication in 1654. Her involvement in Swedish affair didn't terminate with her abdication, however. She returned to Sweden several times, on the last of which she might well have resumed her throne but for her whimsical conversion to Catholicism. She also drew her wealth, in her initial years in Italy, from vast estates in Sweden.