Semyon Alexeyevich Barmotin (1877–1939) Piano music

[Alan Howe]

...a student of Balakirev and Rimsky-Korsakov - forthcoming from Grand Piano:
https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=GP799

[eschiss1]

not quite the digital premiere (there may be one other disc and a brass work or arrangement on a 1990s compilation) of his music but maybe almost. Neat. I've only heard of him because of IMSLP I think...

[eschiss1]

Ah. His Op. 9 no.21 Meditation arranged for brass perhaps by Smushchenko (1917-68) may be what shows up as Meditation on that earlier CD; an incomplete Muzgiz score of that arr. is at IMSLP.

[Christopher]

Naxos appears to have released a taster to youtube here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3FybKbWOOw

Semyon Alexeyevich Barmotin (1877-1939) was a student of Balakirev and Rimsky-Korsakov, and his fate under the Soviet regime in the 1930s
remains a mystery, but what survives of his music is impressive in both scale and content. These world première recordings are filled with
colour and contrast: the Tema con variazioni transforms its material into a multitude of moods to conclude in a symphonic march, while the 20 Preludes are striking in their sophisticated harmonies and heightened emotional impact.


He doesn't have a wikipedia page, but there is a brief entry on the Russian Academic Encyclopaedia (via google translate/me):

Semyon Alekseevich (1877, Petersburg - date and place of death unknown) - Russian. composer and teacher. Studied in the Court Capella under M.A. Balakirev, in 1899-1901 - in St. Petersburg's conservatory in Rimsky-Korsakov's practical composition class (graduated in 1903 as an external student). From 1901 he taught at the Court Capella, and then at the music school in Kherson (southern Ukraine); in 1923-1925 - in Petrograd (Leningrad) Conservatory (theory of music). Author of piano works, including a Sonata in G♭ Major (Op.4, ed. 1906), Variations (Op.1, ed. 1904), a Sonata for Violin and Piano (Op.14), romances/songs, etc.

https://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enc_music/790/Бармотин

A youtube "freelancer" plays a very short (just over 1 minute) piano work "La grand-mère, Op. 9 No. 3" here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL96ZdmnJwk

His photo - https://contragents.ru/culture/exhibits/3829357

[Christopher]

Ah. His Op. 9 no.21 Meditation arranged for brass perhaps by Smushchenko (1917-68) may be what shows up as Meditation on that earlier CD; an incomplete Muzgiz score of that arr. is at IMSLP.

Do you have the details of that CD?

[eschiss1]

One of his students born the same year, Mykola Leontovich, is a little better known.

[Alan Howe]

Barmotin's music is very fine. If I have a criticism is that it's not particularly distinctive, but this a CD of thoroughly worthwhile forgotten music, well worth reviving.

[Mark Thomas]

I'll second that, a very worthwhile discovery, as is the other recently issued Grand Piano CD of the music of Adolf Barjansky.