Russian & Soviet Music

[Holger]

Dundonnell, Maximilian Steinberg is definitely a really nice composer and I also regret DGG gave up their Steinberg series which would have been much appreciated.

I have that recording of Steinberg's Fourth (not from this site but directly from the one who recorded it), it's a pity the beginning is missing (and posts above seem to indicate there is even more missing than I actually assumed). I still hope to find somebody else from GB who recorded the whole piece!

I don't know about any LP recordings of Steinbergs music in fact. No idea whether Melodiya really skipped him - however we must keep in mind the amount of Soviet composers is really overwhelming, so although Melodiya recorded quite a lot it's inevitable there are still large gaps.

[eschiss1]

Looking up Dmytro Lvovich Klebanof suggests he's slightly better known for his first symphony "Babyn Yar" (which may now be available in a reissued or new performance on CD on TNC Recordings???). (There is also a scherzo for string quartet uploaded, PD-US only of course since he died in 1987, to IMSLP via Sibley Library. - http://imslp.org/wiki/Scherzo_for_String_Quartet_(Klebanov,_Dmitri_Lvovich) ) . From the linked Wikipedia article one sees that the 3rd symphony linked is (estimated?) as having been composed( published? composed, i think) in 1956.

[Dundonnell]

My information is that Melodyia never recorded any of Steinberg's later three symphonies.

It is odd given that Steinberg was one of Shostakovich's teachers and was a highly influential figure in the 1920s and 1940s. If Shebalin then why not Steinberg?

I think that I recall reading somewhere that the fact that Steinberg was Jewish did him no favours in Stalin's Russia but he kept his post at the Leningrad Conservatory until 1939.

[eschiss1]

as to Steinberg, his arrangements and editions (of Rimsky and of works attributed to CPE Bach ("probably by Henri Casadesus", says the library)) -do- seem to have been recorded in the LP era (the latter by Vanguard, I think, though that could be a reissue??).

(A recent Stravinsky biography has a very interesting account of the rivalry between those two Rimsky pupils, one notes, for next rising composer of Russia/the USSR- I think I oversimplify more than a little, yes...- which neither won, as Stravinsky left and Steinberg despite some brief success, well...!) Myaskovsky did admire Steinberg sufficiently (I first heard of Steinberg on learning that a favorite Myaskovsky symphony was dedicated to him, and then that Myaskovsky arranged several of Steinberg's orchestral works, including the latter's 3rd symphony, for piano duet.)

Also, a 4-CD set of Unreleased Melodiya Recordings, Volume 2 (on BMG/Melodiia, 1998) contained among other things two excerpts from Steinberg's ballet Till Eulenspiegel (1936)... it would seem that even when his music was recorded, it was not issued. You would seem to be right.

[Holger]

As for Klebanov, the only symphony which has been issued on LP or CD is his Third. My own list says it is from 1958 but I wouldn't be too sure about that. However, I also have a recording of Klebanov's Symphony No. 1 with the Students' Orchestra of the University of Kharkhiv under the baton of Paltadzhian. The problem is that I lack information about its source (though I don't think it's a commercial one). Certainly, it is remarkable Klebanov composed a symphony about Babyn Yar as soon as in 1945/46, and in fact he soon got into trouble because of this piece. I quite like it but I don't think it's a masterpiece - alas, the finale is even rather weak in my view as it falls into pieces. Nevertheless, it remains a courageous work.

Melodiya really did not record any of Steinberg's symphonies - as in case of Shebalin, as it has to be said (the Olympia CDs are not based on Melodiyas as far as I know), with the only exception of the latter's "Lenin" Dramatic Symphony. I have no clue about the background. My impression is that in general living composers were favoured by Melodiya but that's only one aspect of course.

[eschiss1]

Well, that wouldn't explain Shebalin who was alive and composing (despite a stroke- correction, several) fairly late- and while they didn't record his numbered symphonies, they did record the Borodin Quartet in a fine (and reissued recently) account of one of his quartets, e.g. (Here I take issue with the Wikipedia article which describes his last work as full of life. I thought his last work was his briefly partly serial 9th quartet which is also emphatically anguished and depressing though mostly within his usual style and etc. ... (and recommended if you can find a recording- I have the Olympia which may not have been reissued by anyone... or may have been... don't know. Should be, though. ))

[Holger]

I think a general explanation is hard to give in this context - the 'living composers' argument is just a tendency in fact and no attempt to clarify all issues. They also recorded Shebalin's Piano Trio, for instance, or two of his Suites for Orchestra and so on.

Maybe there is some truth about the 'Jewish assumption' in case of Steinberg. On the other hand I just emphasize that in fact, there were really thousands of Soviet composers, and consequently there are huge masses of pieces which were not recorded even if their composers enjoyed considerable fame, that's nothing too special.

[Christopher]

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.

There are a couple of pieces by Steinberg recorded on a Historical Russian Archives box set of music conducted by Mravinsky.  There are 10 CDs in it and on Amazon it is selling for $100!  Please see my thread elsewhere about the iniquity of box-sets!!  http://www.amazon.com/Historical-Russian-Archives-Evgeny-Mravinsky/dp/B00152CA32/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318333287&sr=8-1

The pieces (apparently on CD3) are:
9. Dance of the Buffons (2:44)
10. Dance of Gillina (3:12)

Is anyone going to fork out $100 for 5 mins 56 secs of Steinberg?!

[Christopher]

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

The fourth symphony is available here - http://intoclassics.net/news/2009-09-10-8726 - but I don't know if that is a link that passes the copyright rules of this site....

[Mark Thomas]

I'm afraid that I can't figure out the source of that recording, so downloader beware!

[Christopher]

It says BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conductor Aleksandr Vedernikov....

Шотландский симфонический оркестр Би-Би-Си
дирижёр Александр Ведерников

When I put "steinberg vedernikov bbc turksib" into a search engine, it gives only one link, that I can't open, as follows:

search results: Neeme Järvi -《施泰因贝格：第二交响曲及 ...- Translate
--Maximilian Steinberg (1883 - 1946) 马克 ... 1932 Fourth Symphony, dubbed Turksib in ... well have heard tapes of the BBC's 1994 broadcast by the BBCPO and Alexander Vedernikov.
www.verycd.com/topics/132432

[Holger]

I am pretty sure that I know where the Steinberg download comes from. A friend of mine, who is a very ambitious collector of Soviet repertoire, once recorded the symphony from the radio (but started the tape too late so that the beginning is missing). He shared the music with me and some other people, and it was also posted on shostakovich.ning.com. Now, some people there also use to share music on intoclassics (which is altogether quite a dubious site with severe copyright violations indeed). One of them is the guy who posted the Steinberg symphony there. This will be the same recording which was posted above (maybe just in another upload version, but anyway). It is really interesting how far music can spread if once uploaded somewhere. I also know that quite a bunch of Soviet repertoire on YouTube is actually taken from my collection in my own LP transfers, though I never uploaded anything on YouTube (nor gave permission).

[eschiss1]

Christopher- yes, those two tracks are the excerpts from his ballet Till Eulenspiegel composed in (or ca.?) 1936. There used to be a smaller collection one could buy them in apparently.

[Dundonnell]

Regarding the Shcherbachov Symphony No.2:

The first two links worked ok but the other three are 'invalid', I regret to report.

[Sicmu]

Regarding the Shcherbachov Symphony No.2:

The first two links worked ok but the other three are 'invalid', I regret to report.

Shcherbachov's Symphony No.2 is available from eMusic for 3 bucks or so :

http://www.emusic.com/listen/#/album/American-Symphony-Orchestra-Shcherbachev-Symphony-No-2-Blokovskaya-MP3-Download/12659083.html: