Shchedrin

In August 2022, the musicians of the world-class Rachmaninoff International Orchestra (RIO) gathered in Bratislava to perform their first recording under the direction of founder and artistic director Mikhail Pletnev. Experience the beloved tunes from "Swan Lake" and "Carmen" on Super Audio CD and digital.

Gogol's poem Dead Souls formed a compulsory part of the school literature programme. Pupils were tormented by writing essays on the characters of Chichikov, Plyushkin and Nozdryov, serfdom, or rather the lawless state of the Russian people prior to the Bolshevist revolution. In a word, instead of joy, the writer was burdened by enmity and boredom. And he was even forced to cut the text of the lyrical deviation "Eh, a troika, a troika-bird..." This text contained a literary interpretation of the belief of the writer in the bright future of his people. And that future was our Soviet life... And so when I took to considering the libretto for the opera, the first thing I resolved was the following: not to include the text of the "Troika-Bird", to do without it. That was, probably, my first impulse in creating the idea of the opera Dead Souls. This dream lived within me for ten whole years. First consideration, then reading and rereading the great book, notes of the most important things for the musical dramaturgy of the text, sketching the music. And, lastly, the joys and the tortures of working every single day. No contracts, promises, guaranteed theatres or production dates - absolutely nothing of that kind at all.
Rodion Shchedrin. Autobiographical Notes

Experience the popular melodies from "Swan Lake" and "Carmen" recorded by the world-class Rachmaninoff International Orchestra (RIO) under the baton of Mikhail Pletnev.

Again and again, the Wave Quartet succeeds in making the known sound completely new and interesting. For example, the ensemble was thrilled with the harpsichord concert of Johann Sebastian Bach in his own arrangement for the marimba ensemble and orchestra on his Sony Classical debut: "Musically, this new recording has a lot to offer (…), captivatingly enthralling, meditative , Zeitzeithaltend.The conciseness with which the Wave Quartet plays, is certainly one of the special qualities. " (Fono Forum) The second album of the Wave Quartet now focuses on perhaps the most popular female figure in opera history. It is the "Carmen" from Georges Bizet's world hit of the same name.

At one of her rare appearances with orchestra, Martha Argerich, the grande dame of the piano, joined forces with world-famous cellist Mischa Maisky and the fabulous Lucerne Symphony Orchestra for the world premiere of a newly commissioned work by Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin – “Romantic Offering”, a double concerto for piano, cello and orchestra dedicated to its very first soloists.

Dem Wave Quartet gelingt es immer wieder, Bekanntes völlig neu und interessant erklingen zu lassen. So hat das Ensemble bei seinem Sony Classical-Debüt mit den Cembalo-Konzerten von Johann Sebastian Bach im eigenen Arrangement für Marimba-Ensemble und Orchester begeistert: "Musikalisch hat diese neue Einspielung etliche Reize zu bieten (…), berückend entrückend, meditativ, zeitanhaltend. Die Prägnanz, mit der das Wave Quartet spielt, zählt sicherlich zu den besonderen Qualitäten."

In this imaginatively shaped and sensitively played album – her third for ECM – Russian pianist Anna Gourari explores musical connections and influences extending across the arts.