Page 1 A Triple Portrait Chamber Music by Elena Firsova Marsyas Trio Page 2 Page 3 Elena Firsova belongs to the post-Second World War Firsova’s works, along with those of her colleagues Homage to Canisy, Op.129 for Cello & Piano (2010) refers to the Château de Canisy in Normandy where generation of Soviet composers that emerged in the Dmitri Smirnov, Alexander Knaifel, Viktor Suslin, Firsova is a guest of the castle owner each year. This work was first performed in April 2010 by cellist Anatole 1970s. These composers were at the forefront of Vyacheslav Artyomov, Sofia Gubaidulina and Edison Liebermann and pianist Alissa Firsova at the Fête de la Musique, the castle’s music festival. The music represents compositional developments as the Iron Curtain Denisov, were described by union leader Khrennikov the hustle and bustle of musicians and audience members going between their festival activities. gradually fell and their music began to reach an as “pointless […] noisy mud instead of real musical international audience. This CD is dedicated to innovation” and “not representative of the work of Lost Vision, Op.137 for Piano Solo (2012) expresses Firsova’s inner frustrations and anxiety in reaction to a Firsova’s 65th Birthday, celebrating her role in both Soviet composers.” Reminiscent of the First Congress sudden vision impairment which doctors incorrectly diagnosed as being permanent. As she cycles towards the British and Russian music of the 20th and 21st in 1948 where Prokofiev and Shostakovich were erroneously ominous hospital appointment, the initially sparse, calm music builds to a storm of agitation and fury, centuries. All works are previously unrecorded, similarly denounced, this served as an unintended with regular triplets symbolising the pedalling of the bicycle. Her turmoil reaches fever pitch before eventually including A Triple Portrait, commissioned by the complement that increased Western interest in recovering a sense of serenity and resignation. The work was premièred by Alissa Firsova in 2013. Marsyas Trio in 2011. Firsova was born in Leningrad Firsova’s music. Her punishment was censorship on 21 March 1950, three years before the death of which prevented her work being performed on radio A Triple Portrait, Op.132 for Flute, Cello & Piano (2011) is the work commissioned by the Marsyas Trio which Stalin, and lived in Moscow from the age of six. The and television, and prohibited the publication of her began the group’s association with Firsova. Funded by a PRS for Music Foundation Women Make Music award, daughter of physicists, her education was taken scores. the work was premièred in London in 2012. The title reflects the idea of three individuals who enter one after seriously. She made her first attempt at composition at another and then try to communicate playing together; but this is not easy in music as well as in life, especially age eleven and from 1970-75 attended the Moscow Firsova met her husband, the composer Dmitri when not only two but three personalities are involved. A poetic inscription from Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal Conservatory, where her teachers were Alexander Smirnov, early in her student days. They married in (the Flowers of Evil) resonates with Firsova’s statement that in her music, and in this trio as well, there are many Pirumov and Yuri Kholopov. However, it was 1972 and moved to England in 1991 with their thoughts about death and time: The Clock, calm evil god, that makes us shiver, / With threatening finger warns us Firsova’s contact with composers Edison Denisov and children, Alissa and Philip. Firsova has so far each apart: “Remember!” Philip Herschkowitz outside her formal studies that composed over 150 works, in which vocal pieces, both were a key influence over her style. Denisov and large and small scale, feature highly. An impressive Night Songs, Op.125 for Mezzo-Soprano, Flute & Cello (2009) are set to poems written by Mandelstam in Herschkowitz were not officially approved by Soviet list of commissions includes orchestral works written 1930-31, a decade during which many Russians lived in constant fear of being taken away by Soviet authorities. authorities because their work followed that of the for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Mandelstam refused to surrender to the regime’s control over the arts and died in the Stalinist camps in 1938 as a Second Viennese School. Herschkowitz was the only Concertgebouw Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra result. This work was premièred in London in June 2010 and reflects the fearful, emotive texts. composer in Moscow to have studied with Berg and of Wales and Deutsches Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Webern, so it was to him that many younger chamber music for the Schubert and Nash Ensembles, composers came for advice and knowledge about and a series of ten string quartets written for the serial techniques. New Western compositional Britten, Danish, Smith and Brodsky Quartets. methods were not permitted on the Conservatoire’s Firsova’s music has been featured at international curriculum, despite the cultural thaw that had taken festivals including the BBC Proms, Freden Festival, place after Stalin’s death in 1953. and Expo 2000. She has always felt a special connection with the introspective and confessional Unlike their predecessors, Firsova’s generation did poetry of Osip Mandelstam, stating that, “Had I been a not fear for their life if their work strayed from the poet, his is the poetry I would like to have written”. official Soviet style, but they still did not have total Her music is distinctive and personal, at times artistic freedom. Firsova’s compositional style placed explosive, and always imbued with expressive her among the ‘unofficial’ composers whose music lyricism where individual melodic lines seep through was mostly performed in underground concerts. Her the texture. Firsova’s works are published by Boosey music was first heard outside the Soviet Union in 1979 & Hawkes, Sikorski, Schirmer, Schott and Sovetsky at the Cologne Festival, which led to a public rebuke at Kompozitor. the Sixth Congress of the Composers’ Union. Page 2 Page 3 Elena Firsova belongs to the post-Second World War Firsova’s works, along with those of her colleagues Homage to Canisy, Op.129 for Cello & Piano (2010) refers to the Château de Canisy in Normandy where generation of Soviet composers that emerged in the Dmitri Smirnov, Alexander Knaifel, Viktor Suslin, Firsova is a guest of the castle owner each year. This work was first performed in April 2010 by cellist Anatole 1970s. These composers were at the forefront of Vyacheslav Artyomov, Sofia Gubaidulina and Edison Liebermann and pianist Alissa Firsova at the Fête de la Musique, the castle’s music festival. The music represents compositional developments as the Iron Curtain Denisov, were described by union leader Khrennikov the hustle and bustle of musicians and audience members going between their festival activities. gradually fell and their music began to reach an as “pointless […] noisy mud instead of real musical international audience. This CD is dedicated to innovation” and “not representative of the work of Lost Vision, Op.137 for Piano Solo (2012) expresses Firsova’s inner frustrations and anxiety in reaction to a Firsova’s 65th Birthday, celebrating her role in both Soviet composers.” Reminiscent of the First Congress sudden vision impairment which doctors incorrectly diagnosed as being permanent. As she cycles towards the British and Russian music of the 20th and 21st in 1948 where Prokofiev and Shostakovich were erroneously ominous hospital appointment, the initially sparse, calm music builds to a storm of agitation and fury, centuries. All works are previously unrecorded, similarly denounced, this served as an unintended with regular triplets symbolising the pedalling of the bicycle. Her turmoil reaches fever pitch before eventually including A Triple Portrait, commissioned by the complement that increased Western interest in recovering a sense of serenity and resignation. The work was premièred by Alissa Firsova in 2013. Marsyas Trio in 2011. Firsova was born in Leningrad Firsova’s music. Her punishment was censorship on 21 March 1950, three years before the death of which prevented her work being performed on radio A Triple Portrait, Op.132 for Flute, Cello & Piano (2011) is the work commissioned by the Marsyas Trio which Stalin, and lived in Moscow from the age of six. The and television, and prohibited the publication of her began the group’s association with Firsova. Funded by a PRS for Music Foundation Women Make Music award, daughter of physicists, her education was taken scores. the work was premièred in London in 2012. The title reflects the idea of three individuals who enter one after seriously. She made her first attempt at composition at another and then try to communicate playing together; but this is not easy in music as well as in life, especially age eleven and from 1970-75 attended the Moscow Firsova met her husband, the composer Dmitri when not only two but three personalities are involved. A poetic inscription from Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal Conservatory, where her teachers were Alexander Smirnov, early in her student days. They married in (the Flowers of Evil) resonates with Firsova’s statement that in her music, and in this trio as well, there are many Pirumov and Yuri Kholopov. However, it was 1972 and moved to England in 1991 with their thoughts about death and time: The Clock, calm evil god, that makes us shiver, / With threatening finger warns us Firsova’s contact with composers Edison Denisov and children, Alissa and Philip. Firsova has so far each apart: “Remember!” Philip Herschkowitz outside her formal studies that composed over 150 works, in which vocal pieces, both were a key influence over her style. Denisov and large and small scale, feature highly.