Russian Music

Cui, a member of the original Russian 'Five', was a dedicated encourager of the other members of the group (and indeed of all living Russian composers) to aim at less imitation of the West; and instead to write, without inhibition, more obviously independent Russian-style music. Nevertheless, he seemed to exempt himself from the encouragement, tending to write his own music in a pretty well accepted western European mould.

Apollon Musagete Quartett - Russian Soul: Tchaikovsky Prokofiev Shostakovich (2014) {OehmsClassics}
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© 2014 OehmsClassics / BR Klassik | OC 874
Classical / Romantic / Chamber Music / String Quartet

It's hard to know what to make of the Russian Soul title of this release by Poland's young Apollon Musagète Quartet. Is the program, with only Shostakovich from the truly nationalist side of the Russian compositional roster, supposed to represent "the Russian soul?" Or just a Russian brand of soul? In any event, only the Shostakovich String Quartet No. 4 in D major, Op. 83, fits the general stereotype of the inward, melancholy, perhaps self-destructive Russian soul. Tchaikovsky's popular String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 11, of 1871, is both the first true efflorescence of the composer's proto-neo-classic Mozartian side and nearly the first evidence of his ability to write a real heartbreaker of a good tune, in the slow movement (track 2).

Founded by Anatoly Grindenko in the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra monastery, near Moscow, the Moscow Russian Patriarchate Choir was created in 1980. Following tradition, it is composed of 12 to 13 members. The singers were all eminent researchers, passionate about the repertoire of compositions for male voices, from the religious music of the Orthodox Church to the lay songs of the final years of the Soviet regime. At the time, the choir spent several years deciphering ancient manuscripts and giving representations of works that had until then been in the shadows, sometimes for centuries. With the collapse of the USSR, the choir was able to open up to the world and perform in Europe and America, exposing its music to a much larger public.

The G major Anton Rubinstein violin concerto is a fine and powerful work, quite as good as many a lesser-known Russian example in the same genre, and easily as deserving of wider currency as, say, the Taneyev Suite de Concert, which is just as rarely heard these days. Nishizaki gives a committed and polished reading, though you often feel that this is music written by a pianist who had marginally less facility when writing for the violin. Still, here’s a well-schooled performance, full of agreeable touches of imagination (the Andante shows Nishizaki’s fine-spun tone to particularly good effect) delivered with crisply economical urgency that makes good musical sense even of the work’s plainer and less idiomatic passages.

Dedicated to the blessed memory!
Araxia Davtian began her musical education as a pianist. Upon graduation from music school she continued her education as a vocalist in the college of music and then in the Yerevan Conservatory where she studied with R. Gulabian. In 1979 she became a prize-winner at the Glinka Competition, and in 1984 she won First Prize at the International Viotti Competition in Italy.
Vladimir Yurigin-Klevke studied at the Moscow Conservatory under Heinrich Neuhaus and Jacov Zak and was a First Prize-winner at the 1969 National Piano Competition of Contemporary Soviet Music.

Founded by Anatoly Grindenko in the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra monastery, near Moscow, the Moscow Russian Patriarchate Choir was created in 1980. Following tradition, it is composed of 12 to 13 members. The singers were all eminent researchers, passionate about the repertoire of compositions for male voices, from the religious music of the Orthodox Church to the lay songs of the final years of the Soviet regime. At the time, the choir spent several years deciphering ancient manuscripts and giving representations of works that had until then been in the shadows, sometimes for centuries. With the collapse of the USSR, the choir was able to open up to the world and perform in Europe and America, exposing its music to a much larger public.

The Russian Orthodox music presented here comes from the music for Great Lent, which is a meditation on the meaning of Holy Week. Great Lent or Velikiy Post, is the most important and one of the longest of the four Lenten periods in the year. It opens with a powerfully meditative chant 'Let all mortal flesh keep silent' which is specially sung only once a year along with the Old Testament lamentation 'By the rivers of Babylon'. The music here is, as usual with Orthodox chant, profoundly solemn and deeply meditative - some would say even mystical.

Our series continues with one of the lesser known figures of 20th century Russian music - and some wonderful music which is brilliantly constructed. This is high Romantic music at its very best; a sumptuous Sonata, and several more pieces which can be considered equal to the established repertoire and is truly among the most virtuosic and rich music ever written.