CHAN 10025 BOOK.Qxd 4/5/07 12:20 Pm Page 2
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
CHAN 10025 Front.qxd 4/5/07 12:18 pm Page 1 CHAN 10025 CHANDOS CHAN 10025 BOOK.qxd 4/5/07 12:20 pm Page 2 Nikolay Yakovlevich Myaskovsky (1881–1950) Symphony No. 27, Op. 85 35:35 in C minor • in c-Moll • en ut mineur 1 I Adagio – Allegro animato 14:11 Lebrecht Collection Lebrecht 2 II Adagio 13:51 3 III Presto ma non troppo 7:33 Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 66* 31:37 in C minor • in c-Moll • en ut mineur 4 I Lento ma non troppo 12:10 5 II Allegro vivace 19:27 TT 67:23 Alexander Ivashkin cello* Russian State Symphony Orchestra under Valeri Polyansky Nikolay Yakovlevich Myaskovsky 3 CHAN 10025 BOOK.qxd 4/5/07 12:20 pm Page 4 were prominent among the crimes nineteenth-century tradition of Tchaikovsky, Myaskovsky: Symphony No. 27 and Cello Concerto anathematised by Zhdanov in his address to the Mighty Handful, and especially Glazunov the Composers’ Union. Few eminent Soviet and Rachmaninov (although as émigrés, the composers escaped censure and Myaskovsky, last two simply did not exist officially and no Nikolay Myaskovsky, often hailed as the father confrontational, and in this unimaginably Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Khachaturyan one in 1949 Soviet Russia would have dared of the Soviet symphony, composed no fewer fraught and jittery atmosphere he devoted all were all singled out. It was a heavy blow to to link Myaskovsky’s name with theirs). The than twenty-seven symphonies in a long and his energies to teaching and composing. In the Myaskovsky whose last years were dogged by language of the symphony may be stylistically distinguished career. Born in Novogeorgiyevsk period of the Stalinist purges his musical ill health. In February 1949 he underwent a anachronistic, but this is also its strength. in 1881, Myaskovsky was already thirty-six language became more optimistic and serious operation for the stomach cancer that Every listener finds it immediately familiar, and when the Bolshevik revolution overwhelmed a accessible, and Soviet life was extolled in such finally took him to the grave. He spent the for that reason it served Myaskovsky well as a war-torn Russia. He had been destined for a pieces as the notorious Symphony No. 12 summer recuperating at Nikolina Gora, a means of putting over his own ideas in a way career in the army, but had found himself glorifying the Russian village and the collective wooded retreat overlooking the high left bank that could be most directly understood. The increasingly drawn towards music. As a pupil of farms, and in the patriotic cantata of 1942 of the Moscow River where Prokofiev lived first movement, a sonata structure, consists of Glière and then of Rimsky-Korsakov and Kirov Is with Us. During the war years permanently until 1950. There, at the dacha two sharply contrasting ideas. The first is Lyadov at the St Petersburg Conservatory, Myaskovsky was evacuated to the Caucasus belonging to his old friend Pavel Lamm, heard gloomily on the bassoons at the outset, Myaskovsky remained essentially conservative where he made a study of the regional folk Myaskovsky completed his eighth and ninth but as the pace quickens the strings transform despite elements of innovation in his first music, and used the themes from Kabardin- piano sonatas, the String Quartet No. 13 it into a highly dynamic and impulsive theme published compositions. His early symphonies Balkar folksongs in his Symphony No. 23 in and his Symphony No. 27 in C minor. By that becomes the dramatic focus of the (nos 1–4), written before the revolution, are A minor. Both the Symphony No. 24 in F minor 6 August the sketches of the symphony were movement. The second idea is a lyrical subject complex, subjective and pessimistic works, and the Cello Concerto belong to the period ready and the orchestration was completed in group shared by the woodwind and strings heavily marked by chromaticism. These features following Myaskovsky’s return to Moscow at early November. On New Year’s day 1950, that takes on unmistakably Rachmaninovian persist to one degree or another in some of the end of 1942. Myaskovsky heard the new symphony played overtones as it unfolds. Although quite his later symphonies, but under the exigencies Myaskovsky’s last three symphonies are the in a piano reduction at the home of Pavel different in character, these two thematic of socialist realism Myaskovsky was forced product of the post-war years – a period Lamm, but he never lived to hear the episodes grow organically from one another constantly to adapt his musical thinking. deeply scarred by Zhdanov’s cultural purges in orchestral premiere which took place on and also provide the building blocks for the During the 1930s this meant treading a the wake of the furore over Muradeli’s opera 9 December, four month’s after the his death. remaining two movements of the symphony, slippery tightrope, since any adverse criticism The Great Friendship. This ill-starred opera was The symphony was posthumously awarded the thereby producing a cyclic effect. The from the communist hierarchy could well prove intended as a tribute to Stalin and his Stalin Prize. magnificent Adagio is one of Myaskovsky’s fatal. Shostakovich also knew this, but he was homeland Georgia, but it was castigated as Like all his symphonies from No. 22 most inspired creations. Its nobility and from a younger generation and his weapon formalist. Formalism (concern over form to the onward, Myaskovsky’s final essay in the genre unsentimental pathos are more than a match against a despotic regime was humour. Being detriment of socialist content) and any was planned as a three-movement work. It for the dark clouds that threaten to engulf the by nature highly reserved, Myaskovsky was less perceived imitation of reviled Western models looks back quite unapologetically to the great central part of the movement, and the menace 4 5 CHAN 10025 BOOK.qxd 4/5/07 12:20 pm Page 6 is powerless in the face of the ecstatic flow of introspective and melancholy introduction that Amsterdam, Konzerthaus, Hamburg, Dvoˇrák successfully merging it with the State melody that wells up before the movement forms the basis for a lyrical dialogue between Hall, Prague, Great Hall of the Moscow Symphonic Cappella. Under his leadership they draws to its close. In the finale (Presto ma non the soloist and the orchestra. Instead of the Conservatory, Philharmonia Hall, St Petersburg have become one of the very best Russian troppo) the earlier themes return and are brilliant virtuoso style of the traditional and Vredenburg, Utrecht. He is one of the ensembles, alternating symphonic performances tossed about in a maelstrom of swirling concerto, Myaskovsky demands from his soloist three cellists, the others being Mstislav with those performed with the choir. strings and woodwind. Eventually a brash profound sensitivity, warmth of expression and Rostropovich and Natalia Gutman, for whom march theme emerges and we are momentarily perfect cantabile playing. A contrast is Alfred Schnittke composed works for cello, and After graduating from the Moscow State reminded of the finale of Tchaikovsky’s provided by the Allegro vivace second he has recorded the complete works for cello Conservatory, Valeri Polyansky studied opera Symphony No. 5, not so much for any movement, but its lively dancing rhythms are by Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Rachmaninov, and symphonic conducting under Odissey thematic resemblance but in the dramatic clash interrupted by another long reflective episode Schnittke, Roslavets and Tcherepnin. A Dimitriada and later under Gennady of opposing and irreconcilable forces. that is often reminiscent of the earlier Professor of Music at the University of Rozhdestvensky. He began his professional The Cello Concerto in C minor was movement. The exuberant mood tries vainly to London, Alexander Ivashkin is also Artistic career conducting at the Bolshoi Theatre, and composed between late October and early reassert itself but is beaten back by the sheer Director of the Adam International Cello was appointed Principal Conductor of the December 1944 for the celebrated cellist weight of the emotional strain. The response Festival and Competition. Russian State Symphony Orchestra in 1992. Sviatoslav Knushevitsky, and it was he who to a second attempt is a heroic cadenza, but He has been Artistic Director of the State gave the premiere of the work in a radio even this cannot dispel the deep sense of The Russian State Symphony Orchestra was Symphonic Cappella for over twenty-five years broadcast of the Radiokomitet Orchestra anguish, and the concerto ends with a quiet founded in 1962. Gennady Rozhdestvensky and has led both ensembles in major under the baton of Aleksandr Orlov, on and very personal restatement of the opening became Principal Conductor in 1981 and his productions throughout the world including 17 March 1945. The work won immediate theme of the work. energy and commitment paved the way forward Iceland, Finland, Turkey and the Far East. popularity with Russian audiences, and has for a vital new burst of creativity and Under his direction their repertoire has been subsequently become one of the composer’s © 2002 Philip Taylor achievement for the Orchestra. It has toured extended to embrace music from the baroque best-loved works. Premiered only a few throughout the world, performing and recording era through to that of contemporary months before the end of the Second World As a soloist and chamber musician Alexander a varied repertoire that includes all the composers of many nationalities. Among his War, the concerto is almost certainly the Ivashkin has performed in more than thirty symphonies of Bruckner and Shostakovich, and many artistic achievements have been critically reflection of a profound emotional response to countries.