Russian & Soviet Music

[Arbuckle]

Esipov, misstransliterated the letter.

[semloh]

Friends, thank you for finding out about Mr Gontschiksumla ..... Mongolian! Amazing! Those alternative spellings do make it difficult. Thanks, too, for the correction on the conductor. The middle section of the symphony is especially seductive.

The internet has enabled us to discover and share music of all kinds on a vast scale, and it still amazes me. I doubt that a fraction of the music available via this forum would ever have been heard by us before the internet appeared - and this is a case in point. 

[eschiss1]

Having a lot of difficulty getting iTunes to play some of these mp3 files though (Quicktime player will do so, though, so this is just a problem if I want to catalog them and store them on my iPod I suppose). Not sure why, and maybe the problem will resolve after "Step 1: Reboot your machine" ! - will obliterate this section of the post if so.
Musicsack and VIAF are fallible but really useful I find (the latter collates? and makes searchable the contents of a very large number of government library biographical authority databases among, I think, other things. It's a little difficult to learn how to use but worthwhile.)

[eschiss1]

Another small point as in the Romanian folder, trying with some difficulty to find some definite information about the commonly accepted transliteration of Mikhail Yakovlevich Kalachevsky's name (there seem to be several variants in common use) and details about his 2nd, "Ukrainian" symphony. Apparently may not have been published until 1966 or so, despite composition in 1876- hrm. (Am curious about that if only because I might want to see the score uploaded to IMSLP if possible. Though if it's an Urtext it might still be possible- depends on legal specifics...) Will try to find the movement names, though (unless they're somewhere there and I'm just missing them.)

[Holger]

Hi,

the difficulties regarding spelling in case of Kalachevsky are partly because he was Ukrainian and the transcription from Ukrainian as well as the actual names slightly differ from the Russian versions. Kalachevsky may also be written as Mykhailo Kalachevsky, for example.

You don't have to search for the movement titles of his Ukrainian Symphony (isn't it his only one? never saw it labled as No. 2 before) as I have them:

I. Poco andante. Allegro
II. Intermezzo. Scherzando
III. Andante con moto
IV. Finale

[eschiss1]

Well- I think only one source only referred to it as his 2nd symphony, in which case the first if there was a first it may well be lost...
(Though who knows what's at the Russian State Library that's hard to find elsewhere- lots of stuff based on evidence so far. Publishing activity in Russia in the 19th century, both of composers in the area and republishing from composers of more central European countries, was - quite a lot - and with many minor publishers to supplement and to precede the better-known Belaieff and Jurgenson. This is becoming clearer as they, like some other national libraries, have undertaken a large digital scanning project lately the products of which are beginning to  show up on IMSLP. Anyhow. Have I mentioned I love libraries...  ) Thanks!

[Holger]

As for A.S' upload of Anatoly Lepin's Third Piano Concerto, the orchestra is the Latvian Radio and TV Symphony Orchestra (which is from all I know today's Latvian National Symphony Orchestra).

I knew this piece before (but as there were some stylus problems in the finale I downloaded your version nevertheless): it's rather crazy because Lepin mixes so much different influences which even go back to Bach in parts of the finale, but the result is definitely fun.

[Latvian]

Some additional detail:

Anatoly Lepin (1907-1984), though born in Russia, spent a number of years in Latvia during the Soviet occupation, and was known there as Anatolijs Liepiņš. During his time there, he wrote what became the Soviet Latvian anthem (which was quickly discarded upon Latvian independence in favor of the much-loved pre-occupation anthem by Kārlis Baumanis). Interestingly, while Sinaisky, the conductor on this record, is still held in good regard in Latvia, Lepin's music has entirely disappeared. Though I haven't had occasion to discuss Lepin with Latvian musical colleagues, I can only surmise that he was part of the attempted Russification of local culture in the ethnic republics in the 1950s and 1960s in the USSR.

I agree, Holger, Lepin's 3rd Piano Concerto is a crazy mix of styles and influences, but certainly fun. Perhaps similar to Schnittke's polystylism, but more superficial?

[Holger]

That's an interesting thought! Maybe Lepin's polystilism might be regarded as some kind of "Soviet" or "official" polystilism as opposed to Schnittke (as a dissident)? However, as I know hardly anything about Lepin as a person that's probably something one should be careful about. Nevertheless, the Concerto in total does have its traits which seem to fit up to some degree. The second theme in the first movement resembles Kabalevsky's three Concertos for the Soviet Youth from around 1950 in some way, for example.

It's quite interesting what you tell about his role in Latvian music culture in the course of the years.

[eschiss1]

BTW- Muradeli symphony 2 -
#Adagio-Allegro fervido,
#Adagio sostenuto,
#Allegro moderato,
#Allegro vivo

Admittedly that's 4 movements to the 5 we have, and the 5 we have don't seem to divide into an introduction and main movement - ok... wait... what (I wonder if I can find the score of symphony 2 and check it against this. Track 4's opening sounds finale-ish though track 5 sounds even moreso. Maybe there are different versions of the piece and (possibly) the above listing, from the Dutch Royal Library listings, is for a different version.-ES )

[eschiss1]

Problem in the above comment solved- the 2nd and 3rd files together make up the "Adagio sostenuto" 2nd movement of the Muradeli 2nd symphony. (An EBay page lists the 2nd symphony together with its total timings:
#Adagio - Allegro fervido (19:06)
#Adagio sostenuto (12:24) (or, files 2 and 3 put together)
#Allegro moderato (7:37)
#Allegro vivo (8:32)

[eschiss1]

Also (sorry...) for such as are interested the Catoire/Katuar/Катуар piano quartet score and parts can be found at http://imslp.org/wiki/Piano_Quartet,_Op.31_(Catoire,_Georgy).

[eschiss1]

Looking forward to hearing the (Veli/Weli/Welimuhammet) Mukhatov first, btw- saw a mention of it when looking up older recordings by Sinaisky (presumably? Vassily, not his father...). Thanks again!

[Holger]

Looking forward to hearing the (Veli/Weli/Welimuhammet) Mukhatov first, btw- saw a mention of it when looking up older recordings by Sinaisky (presumably? Vassily, not his father...). Thanks again!

From all I know, there is only one conductor named Sinaisky, and that's Vassiliy Sinaisky, born in 1947. He has done a large number of recordings (Melodiya, Chandos) and conducted many different orchestras, for instance the Latvian NSO as well as the BBC Philharmonic.

Apart from that, I can also upload a recording of Mukhatov's / Muhadow's Symphony No. 2, which has appeared on Melodiya as well. Moreover, I am going to upload the Chalayev and Gadzhibekov / Hacıbəyov symphonies which A.S requested in near future.

[Dundonnell]

Amongst the torrent of Russian and Soviet Music that has been so generously made available for download I had hoped to see some more Maximilian Steinberg.

As has been pointed out in a separate thread, DGG gave up on Steinberg after issuing his first two very early symphonies. The three later symphonies-
No. 3(1928), No.4 'Turksib'(1933) or No.5 'Symphonic Rhapsody on Uzbek Themes'(1942)- don't seem to have made it to cd or indeed to have ever been recorded on LP.
Steinberg was an important teacher but also a significant composer and his neglect seems very surprising.

The Fourth Symphony was available on here but the file is now locked as "private".