Airat Ichmouratov: Orchestral Works

[Joachim Raff]

Ichmouratov: Youth Overture (2016)
Ichmouratov: Maslenitsa Overture (2013)
Ichmouratov: Symphony 'On the ruins of an Ancient Fort' (2017)

Olivier Charetter (violin), Daniel Venglar (trumpet), Patrick Namur (cello)
Orchestre de la Francophonie
Jean-Philippe Tremblay

I did a search on this composer and not a mention anywhere. Maybe I am the first to list anything about him. Chandos have newly released a disc on some of his orchestral works. Katherine Cooper(Presto) wrote a nice review of the works.
Do not take any notice of when these works were composed. Very much in the idiom of early twentieth century. Plenty to like and to keep you interested. If you like picking the bones out and recognising other composers, these are great works. The recordings are the usual high standard from Chandos and the performances are equally great. I recommend you give them a go if you have a streaming service.         


Release Date: 29th May 2020
Catalogue No: CHAN20172
Label: Chandos
Length: 73 minutes

[Sharkkb8]

Here's his Wikipedia page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airat_Ichmouratov

[Sharkkb8]

....and Chandos page for this album.  (with sound bites)

https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%2020172

[Sharkkb8]

Do not take any notice of when these works were composed. Very much in the idiom of early twentieth century.

I confess my eye began to twitch when I saw composition dates within the last decade, but I'm streaming the Symphony right now, and so far anyway (only about 7 minutes in), I don't think there's anything that will frighten the horses.   

Chandos also shows another disc by this composer, with a Concerto Grosso, an Octet, and a Viola/Harp/Strings work.

https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%2020141

[dhibbard]

oops  ... since he was born in 1973...don't think he meets the requirements of Romantic era music.....  I was aware of his new CD on Chandos....but not romantic style.

[dhibbard]

Unsung Composers is "for the open-minded lover of music from the romantic era". Our members are interested in the music and lives of nowadays less well known composers writing in the "romantic" style and also in the unsung works of the great romantic composers.

A necessarily loose definition of romantic music:
The new Grove Dictionary takes 5200 words to describe Romanticism in music without being able to define it and yet, generally speaking, we know it when we hear it: it's music written by the likes of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Wagner, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Mahler and Bruckner to name some of its most famous exponents.  Traditional time frames for music's "romantic era" have it beginning with Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony (1808) and ending with Stravinsky's Sacre du printemps (1913) or, alternatively, lasting from the end of the Napoleonic wars to the end of the First World War (1815-1918). But it's not as simple as that: some composers who are arguably "romantic" flourished outside those time frames: Beethoven and Schubert before the start and Elgar and Rachmaninov after its close for example. Some composers did not actively compose until well after the traditional period and yet wrote, and still write, in a recognisably romantic idiom: examples being Marx, Korngold, Atterberg, Furtwängler, many composers of film music and, until his death in 2013, Schmidt-Kowalski. The romantic idiom itself changed hugely from the early post-classical romanticism of Mendelssohn, say, to the very late-romanticism of Mahler, via the revolutionary innovations of Wagner and Liszt. Overall, though, music of the romantic era still shares recognisable attributes: the restrained employment (if at all) of dissonance, a reliance on 19th century models of harmony and construction and the fundamental importance of melody. Mere tonality, without strong elements of these other characteristics, does not qualify music as being romantic in style.

The focus of UC has now shifted to being solely about romantic music but previous posts about music in later styles have not been deleted, so do not rely on the fact that a composer or piece of music has been discussed previously as an indication of eligibility now.  Please do not post about composers or compositions which clearly fall outside our definition of "romantic". Your post will not be approved. If you are in any doubt, and in any event if the music was written after 1918, please email or PM a moderator before posting.

To preserve the knowledge which they contain, the forum's Archive boards have many posts about 20th century composers and music in particular which would not now fall within the focus of Unsung Composers.

[Mark Thomas]

dhibbard has posted our "Guidelines" of course. I have this new recording, but haven't yet listened to it, which I'll try to do today. From the sound bites I've heard I suspect that it's borderline at best as far as coming within UC's area of interest is concerned, but it's certainly attractive, colourful and dramatic music, if something of a chameleon. I also suspect that whatever view I come to will divide opinion. Anyway, I'm going to lock this thread for now and will reopen it later on today once I, and any of the other moderators, have had chance to review the CD.

[Mark Thomas]

Having listened to the Symphony, it's a stylistic mess: very colourful, melodic and full of incident with lots of UC-friendly passages but with a dollop of Prokofiev, sometimes Shostakovich, thrown in here and there to spice things up - but not aggressively so and certainly not enough to debar it from discussion here. To my ears this episodic piece smacks of epic film music rather than a traditional symphony, so it's more of a large-scale descriptive suite. That said, names don't really matter, it makes for an entertaining listen, I quite enjoyed it for what it was and look forward to reading what colleagues think about it. The overtures are cut from the same cloth.

[Alan Howe]

'Full Of Eastern Promise'...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlXXsGLYHXs

...and about as appetising.

This message was approved by Dave Wurlitzer (Exec Editor, ClassicsYesterday.com)

[Sharkkb8]

I don't think there's anything that will frighten the horses.

Having written that, considering the never-ending world of "that's what I should have said!" - there may be "nothing to frighten the horses", but the more relevant question is whether there's anything to interest them.   

[Mark Thomas]

Quite, but it's a fun listen at the very least.

[eschiss1]

I've about worked out what music interests my friend's dog (she seems to love when I play Medtner's piano and chamber music)*, but I have no clue what music interests horses

*well, depending on her mood at the time, but true.