Mussorgsky Ukraine

Sviatoslav Richter commands legendary status in the keyboard world with almost superhuman technique and a level of intensity never exceeded in my memory. On this Melodiya album, the pianist performs the Tchaikovsky Piano Sonata No. 3 and Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition. Pictures was recorded in 1958. The Tchaikovsky Piano Sonata No. 3 is rarely heard in the recital hall. It sounds more like a piano transcription of an orchestral work than one written for piano, and the chord-oriented work cumbersome on the keyboard. With full orchestra, I'm sure the effect would be quite beautiful.

In contrast to the very great and granitic Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina, Sorochintsi Fair gives us Mussorgsky in a rare, delightful and thoroughly convincing comic mood. Based on a tale by Gogol and taking place in Ukraine, this opera is full of lilting melodies and comic ensembles, delivered by a cast full of fine voices in pungent folk characterizations. The great centerpiece of the third act is a big choral ensemble based on Mussorgsky's early orchestral piece St. John's Night on Mount Triglav, best known to us in Rimsky -Korsakov's smoothed out, beautifully orchestrated arrangement "Night on Bald Mountain." Here, as Mussorgsky wrote it in complete vocal score it is a wild, scary and thoroughly thrilling experience. Otherwise Anatoly Lyadov and, principally, Vissarion Snebalin put Mussorgsky's finished pieces and sketches together and orchestrated them in Mussorgsky's style.

Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter was born on March 20, 1915 (Julian: March 7) in Zhitomir in present-day Ukraine. His father Teofil (Theophilus) came from a German commercial family. The famous Russian piano teacher Heinrich Neuhaus (of German origin) recognized his huge talent and enrol led him in his piano master cl ass at the Moscow Conservatory in 1 937. Profil Edition Gunter Hanssl er is progressively releasing all the recordings that the great Soviet virtuoso made between 1945 and 1963. Most of them were largely unknown in the West during the Cold War, as Richter could only perform til I 1960 behind the ""Iron Curtain"", that is to say, in the Soviet Union and the sate I lite states of Eastern Europe.

Evgueni Galperine’s ECM New Series debut is one of the most strikingly original and evocative albums of the year. A composer of Russian and Ukrainian heritage, living in Paris since 1990, Galperine is working with sound, texture and dynamics in new and powerfully expressive ways. As he explains, the sound world of Theory of Becoming represents an “augmented reality of acoustic instruments, created from recordings made with real and virtual instruments. The numerous transformations the instruments undergo allow me to capture their acoustic nature while also adding techniques and colours impossible to produce in reality…” Galperine’s compositions address wide-ranging subjects: from the resilience of hope in the face of destruction to meditations on the journey of the soul, as well as travels through space and through the magical forests of Max Ernst’s paintings.