Vasily Kalafati (1869-1942)

[terry martyn]

I wanted to enjoy the Kopylov but was let down,I´m afraid. My copy of the Kalafati is somewhere on the way to me in Spain. I hope it arrives soon.

[Christopher]

Mine is taking frustratingly long to arrive 

[adriano]

I've got mine today - and I am really enjoying it :-)

[Alan Howe]

My copy arrived too - a pleasure yet to come...

[Alan Howe]

...but not a huge revelation. Nevertheless this is a most attractive, well-written symphony, with some memorable melodic material. Occasionally I thought the working-out of the material in the opening movement a little dutiful, but the climaxes, when reached, are certainly powerful. There is a sprightly Scherzo, placed second, followed by a deeply-felt Adagio featuring a melancholy cor anglais solo and a gorgeous string-led purple passage around five minutes in leading to some powerful writing. There seems to be an all-pervasive Russian sense of sadness about this movement that is really quite touching. The finale begins with fugal writing evidently attempting to dispel the melancholy of the previous movement and continues with some lively writing, referencing the opening of the work and eventually ending in triumphant affirmation.

The performance is evidently well prepared and the orchestra/conductor clearly believe in the worth of this very unsung symphony. Recommended!

[Justin]

I agree with you, Alan, on the Adagio, especially in amazement of the clarinets, cor anglais and emotional yet not too sentimental strings. It certainly moves from sadness, which reminds me of Glazunov and a bit of George Templeton Strong, to what I imagine to be a bewilderment of beauty through "starry strings" around that 5 minute mark (reminds me of Felix Blumenfeld's final movement from his symphony), then back to bleak sadness. Not sure how else to describe it besides that.

The album is available for download from Amazon, for those who are too impatient to wait like me.

https://www.amazon.com/Symphony-Minor-Department-University-Athens/dp/B08BDMKZLK

[semloh]

Alan sums up my reaction, too.  I am glad we have this music available; it certainly merits the positive reviews it has received.

[Tapiola]

This is one of the least succesful recent Naxos releases IMO. All the works sounded predictable, with no distinctive material, rather like Stanford in places or Glazunov but down-watered. That symphony is too long for its material too. I save the Polonaise for its spark and vivacity. The other works didn't work for me.

[Alan Howe]

I liked the Symphony rather more, for the reasons given, but there is certainly more deserving unrecorded music out there. Wilhelm Berger comes to mind...

[adriano]

A week ago or so, I also posted a not all too positive "review" of Kalafati's Symphony, in which I also used the term "à la Glazunov". I withdraw this posting after having read Alan's and Justin's - knowing that often I am too severe...

[Alan Howe]

I think you may be right, Adriano. I liked it, but I'm not sure how good it really is...

[adriano]

Honestly, Alan, with all my respect towards the composer's skills, I find this Symphony pretty boring and not very original. This made me, so far, not wanting to carry on listening to the remaining pieces...

Off-thread, I know: I have been always interested in music from Greece; I like the Symphonies by Manolis Kalomiris (the two first ones were available on LP) and his opera "Mother's Ring". For a short time I was in contact with Manos Hadjidakis. He had asked Marco Polo to send him my address. In December 1992 I received a letter congratulating me for the CD of Honegger's "Les Misérables" and for "the real meaning of your work on film score revival". And on New Year 1993 he sent me a beautiful wish card. Later on followed a gift parcel with the LP of his opera-ballet "Les Oiseaux", which is an excellent piece.

I also like the music of Dimitri Mitropoulos; since years I am in desperate search of the recording of his opera "Soeur Béatrice"...

[Alan Howe]

I suspect that Kalafati was just too early to be much of a musical personality in his own right.

[terry martyn]

My copy finally escaped the Spanish postal system yesterday.  I have played it all through once, and the third movement of the symphony - which I think is the most striking -a second time.  Not sure that I would have awarded second place in that competition to the Legends piece. It meandered for ages.

[Holger]

I also played the disc some days ago without being too excited. The date of composition of the symphony is given as 1899–1912, however it seems that 1899, rev. 1912 is more adequate, in any case it was Kalafati's graduation piece from conservatory in 1899 and 1912 is the year in which it was revised (or at least the revision was completed). Indeed, it does sound like a graduation piece in places, in particular the first movement. I was surprised that it actually does not even sound too Russian in parts, once again in particular the first movement. However, in the later movements there are some elements of national romanticism indeed which might recall Glazunov in a watered-down manner. The MusicWeb review also compares it to Kalinnikov and besides the fact that the two composers were of about the same age, that's something I do not really understand – all in all, I can hardly hear Kalinnikov's subtle lyricism, melodic gift and orchestral colourfulness in this work, it's much more straightforward and less inspired. One exception might be the slow movement indeed, which I also consider to be still the finest one. However, all in all I was not too impressed, and I would agree the symphony is too long. Anyway, I am glad the piece was recorded as I am always happy to add one more late-Romantic Russian symphony to my collection if only to round up the picture. However it's nothing essential in my view.

When I began playing the Legend I initially thought it might be more interesting, the years in between are audible as the harmonic language is more advanced, for instance, moreover there are some details of orchestration which are new (like a piano in the orchestra). However, my first impression later cooled down since the piece is much too long and meanders for ages indeed. I wouldn't give much on the fact that it was awarded second place in the Schubert competition, the first place was awarded to Mikhail Chernov who is completely unknown today and I don't know of any other Russian composer to have participated (for sure there were 42 participants from Russia but so far I have not heard about any well-known name who contributed).

The Polonaise is much smaller in scale, a typical official and occasional piece, it's a nice listen, maybe also because it does not promise more than it fulfills.