20th century unsung soviet period composers

[imirizaldu]

Sad ... I have recently discovered Weinberg and i am so impressed.


Regarding all these composers, i have come to find a lot of recordings , old an new of many of the ones mentioned in this thread. 


i still don t know what the policy is on this site regarding downloads, so i have not posted any.

[Latvian]

Sergei Slonimsky (Belarussian)(b 1932)

A fine composer! As far as I know he was  born in Leningrad/St. Petersburg and has spent most of his life there. I'm wondering why he's listed in the above post as Belarussian? Did his family come from there?

[eschiss1]

Weinberg's immediate family did not survive, but he was temporarily in the USSR with a famous relative (Solomon Mikhoels), I believe (or with his support?) - who in turn was murdered by the secret police, I believe... - then Weinberg was temporarily himself in prison indeed because... - well, see this Wikipedia article on Weinberg, e.g.

[Delicious Manager]

Sergei Slonimsky (Belarussian)(b 1932)

A fine composer! As far as I know he was  born in Leningrad/St. Petersburg and has spent most of his life there. I'm wondering why he's listed in the above post as Belarussian? Did his family come from there?

Yes, silly me - I was mixing-up his name (although not his music) with Valentin Silvestrov (he's the Belarussian), who is enjoying a fair degree of success in Europe nowadays.

[Aramiarz]

Anyone has  idea of where are the Scores by Medin's piano concert or his symphonies?

[eschiss1]

Which Medins? Jekabs Medins' piano concerto (kokle un orkestram) (1952) can be found in reduction and full score at the National Library of Latvia (website https://lira.lanet.lv ). Jazeps' symphony no.3 can also be found there (record 169 out of 217 in a search under the surname "Mediņš" in their catalog.)

[minacciosa]

Varvera Gaigerova; there is greatness there awaiting discovery. Hear this recording for a sample:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVjNzFFbpkc

Can Myaskovsky today really be counted as unsung?

[Alan Howe]

Myaskovsky's been extensively recorded - like Raff or Draeseke - but how often does his music feature in the concert hall? In my experience, almost never.

[eschiss1]

True, true... Hrm. I see at least one scheduled performance of Myaskovsky in 2015 but unsurprisingly, it's in Moscow, of his 9th string quartet in April 2015. He's fared a little better in recent years - a very (very, very...) little - now, it seems, back to Russia only, perhaps. Pity.

[eschiss1]

... I see I missed even knowing that Gergiev was conducting Myaskovsky's 4th symphony in Rotterdam last month (even though he mentioned it on Facebook... well, I've been distracted, very...) . Well, I'm glad that the 4th hasn't been relegated to the "record once and forget" category...

[minacciosa]

Myaskovsky's 6th was performed a couple of years ago in London. His music pops up much more than you think, but when it does it is smaller works such as the cello sonatas and string quartets. I've actually performed Myaskovsky, as a violinist in a string orchestra organized by Gunther Schuller. We did the wonderful Sinfonietta No.2 (B minor), but since it was Schuller, he of course had to change something. (Schuller is infamous for making editorial changes in works where he thinks the composer went wrong.) I give Schuller credit for programming a great and underserved composer, but he took a big cut in the Finale, explaining to us that he felt it was repetitive.

[Alan Howe]

Indeed. But he's still (relatively) unsung.

[eschiss1]

("Sinfonietta No.2" in B minor- now there's an accurate but confusing designation, since Op.32 No.1 is -not- the first sinfonietta )

[Amphissa]

That Rotterdam Philharmonic program was really quite inspired. Janacek's Taras Bulba, Prokofiev's 1st Violin Concerto with Lisa Batiashvili, and the Myaskovsky 4th Symphony. I'm normally not a huge fan of Gergiev, but the performance of the Myaskovsky 4 was good, with the kind of intensity required to pull off this muscular work.

That said, some of Myaskovsky's music is melodic and lyrical in the best tradition of romanticism, while other works have more complex harmonies and are less melodic. The 4th is among the latter, so it falls outside the purview of UC. Those who are interested can find it over at the other site.

[eschiss1]

Well, that's one of the more blatant ways of, if I may say, spitting in Franz Liszt's eye - for I can imagine what he would have thought of such a definition of what Romanticism was, and wasn't... but we have our definitions, and he had his, it's true, and what did he know?