...a student of Balakirev and Rimsky-Korsakov - forthcoming from Grand Piano:
https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=GP799 (https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=GP799)
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...
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.
Naxos appears to have released a taster to youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3FybKbWOOw (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 (https://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enc_music/790/%D0%91%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BC%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BD)
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 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL96ZdmnJwk)
His photo - https://contragents.ru/culture/exhibits/3829357 (https://contragents.ru/culture/exhibits/3829357)
Quote from: eschiss1 on Friday 08 May 2020, 18:30
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?
One of his students born the same year, Mykola Leontovich, is a little better known.
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.
I'll second that, a very worthwhile discovery, as is the other recently issued Grand Piano CD of the music of Adolf Barjansky (http://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8784976--barjansky-complete-piano-works-vol-1).