Moscow Mathematic

Recorded at State Recording House GDRZ, Studio 5, Moscow, Russia in June 1999. The Moscow double-album is brilliantly conceived and executed. McCandless' compositions “Round Robin” and “All That Mornings Will Bring” sound as if they were written for this kind of expanded palette. Towner's “The Templars” (once again a visit to the medieval) is magnificent, spacious and emerges with great pomp and circumstance at the hands of quartet and orchestra. Moore's “Arianna” is completely reborn at the hands of the musicians of the quartet and the orchestra. “Icarus”, Towner's classic piece, which made its debut performance with the Paul Winter Consort and the symphonic orchestra at Indianapolis in 1970 comes alive with myth and legend, tone, texture and melted wax, here on Moscow. “Spirit's Of Another Sort”, “Anthem” (from Towner's solo album of the same name), “Firebat” and “Zephyr” are newly recast gems, but the album also belongs to “Free-form Piece For Orchestra and Improvisers”.

The Moscow Chamber Orchestra was created in 1956 by renowned conductor and violist Rudolf Barshai, and has long been considered a Russian national treasure.

Dmitry Shostakovich, who entrusted the first performance of his Fourteenth Symphony to the Orchestra, said: “This must be the greatest chamber orchestra in the world.”

On Moscow, the Keith Emerson Band includes ace session guitarist, vocalist, and composer Marc Bonilla (who's toured before with Toy Matinee), bassist Travis Davis, and drummer Tony Pia, who, while currently a member of the Doobie Brothers, has also played with Edgar Winter and Brain Setzer. The program features numerous Emerson, Lake & Palmer nuggets (including a 35-plus-minute "Tarkus"), some brief Emerson originals (film cues from his soundtrack work), a pair of Bonilla pieces, and two co-writes between Bonilla and Emerson. Filmed August, 2008, at Central House of Cinema, Russia…

Alexander Mosolov was one of the foremost composers of the Russian avant-garde during the 1920s. His music was considered ‘a testament to the revolutionary spirit of his time’, but the legacy of his fame from that period now rests solely on The Iron Foundry. Soviet-era politics brought persecution and imprisonment, and these two recently rediscovered works were both composed after his ‘rehabilitation’. The Harp Concerto – a piece worthy of a place in the mainstream repertoire – is Mosolov’s ‘response’ to the concerto by his teacher Glière, and is heard here in its first complete performance. Coupled with the first recording of his final colourful Fifth Symphony, these are fascinating additions to the corpus of neglected Soviet-era works.