Pink Floyd in 1973. Sure, the band is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but did you know Edison Denisov loved Pink Floyd? (Public domain photo).
Since my last post on Russian composer Edison Denisov, some useful resources have come to my attention:
1. There's a useful book about him, Edison Denisov, written by Yuri Kholopov and Valeria Tsenova, published while he was still alive and translated into English by Romela Kohanovskaya. I've read part of it. Among other points, it documents how Dimitri Shostakovich went out of his way to help Denisov very early in Denisov's career.
One of the best parts of the book is toward the end, where Denisov's views on music simply are quoted. For example, he liked rock music and jazz:
“I’m very fond of jazz. It is genuine art. Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis are true great musicians. Miles Davis is my favourite musician, his harmonic thinking is as refined as Debussy’s”.
“I’m keenly interested in modern rock music. Captivated by its uninhibited and bright styles; sometimes you may come across high poetry too. My favourite group is Pink Floyd whose serious music I can listen to every day”.
He had no use for minimalism and didn't like John Cage or Paul Hindemith.
He liked a lot of modernists, such as Boulez, Bartok and Webern. And especially: “Mozart, Glinka and Schubert are closer to my heart than any other music."
2.There's an official website, updated with upcoming shows featuring his music (mostly in France and Russia.)
BD: One last question. Is composing fun? [Note: After rendering my question to the composer, the translator quietly said to me, "The word 'fun' is an impossible word to translate; they don't have the word 'fun' in Russian."]
ED: It's a form of existence. I couldn't exist without composing; I couldn't survive, couldn't get along. If I go without writing music for a long time I feel sick. Unfortunately I don't get the opportunity to work without interruptions, so I always have to work in spurts.
Edison Denisov (Creative Commons photo by Dimitri Smirnov)
I have always meant to give a closer listen to the music of Edison Denisov (1929-1996) and figuring that the time is now, I have been busy exploring his music.
Denisov does not fit chronologically into the main focus of this blog -- musicians such as Gavriil Popov and Alexander Mosolov -- but in a way he fits thematically; as this Wikipedia biography explains, he became a leader of the Association of Contemporary Music when it was reestablished in Moscow in 1990.
I discovered Denisov through a wonderful live recording of Denisov's second symphony, still my favorite Denisov work so far; I got it from Boom, i.e., Vadim Batitsky, the late music blogger I wrote about earlier. It's a recording with the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, Joerg-Peter Weigle conducting.(Boom had a large collection of live music recordings, which he would share on his blog). When I told Boom I was having trouble finding anything else by Denisov that I liked as well and I asked Boom if he had any other good live recordings, he replied, " I am afraid his 2nd symphony is the only composition of his good enough to impress conductors outside Russia."
As you can from the Wikipedia biography, Denisov managed to get himself denounced by Tikhon Khrennikov for "western influences" and "erudition instead of creativity," so he has good street cred. I can't find it in the Wikipedia bio, but his father admired Thomas Edison, hence the composer's name. If you leave off the "V," his first name is an anagram of his last name. Denisov was from Siberia and lived most of his life in Russia but was in France for his last few years.
I have recently persisted in trying other Denisov recordings; much of his work has in fact been recorded. I have in fact found other Denisov works I like; I can recommend his sonata for alto saxophone and piano, which has been recorded several times and in fact may be his most-recorded work. I also like the concerto for clarinet and orchestra. Does anyone have any other works to recommend to me?
I love this photo. You'll likely recognize Shostakovich, and Sergei Prokofiev on the left, and the guy on the right is Aram Khachaturian! (Public domain photo).
Dimitry Shostakovich, Pauline Fairclough, 191 pages, Reaktion Books, part of the Critical Lives series, published in 2019.
Pauline Fairclough's biography of Shostakovich is less than 200 pages long, much shorter for example than the Laurel Fay biography, yet it pretty much covers everything the nosy Shostakovich fan would want: A look at his major compositions, his personal relationships and his interactions with the Soviet government.
I suspect that Fairclough, professor of music at the University of Bristol and a Russian music specialist, had to work with space limitations. I looked up two other books in the Critical Lives series published by Reaktion Books Ltd., and they also run to about 200 pages.
So Fairclough had to make choices, and fortunately she makes good ones, resulting in a lively book. There's no long, boring chronicle of his childhood, for example. But she covers the beginnings of his composing career and has interesting discussions of all of his major works, descriptions which fortunately are not terribly technical and seem written for the general reader.
Fairclough also is the author of A Soviet Credo: Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony, about my favorite Shostakovich symphony, which has enjoyed a revival of many recordings in recent years. But to my surprise, her favorite is the Tenth: "The Tenth Symphony was, and is, his greatest symphonic work." There is an interesting analysis and even some nice gossip about how one movement records his crush on a young woman.
In discussing Shostakovich's relations with Soviet officials, Fairclough steers a middle ground, dismissing the idea that he was a dissident and also arguing that depicting him as a Soviet stooge is unfair, although there were quite a few moments he said things he didn't really mean and took shady actions to please the authorities.
And importantly, Fairclough takes her position because it fits the evidence. She convincingly shows that while Shostakovich was not perfect, he often took courageous actions to aid other Soviet composers who were in trouble, such as Mieczysław Weinberg. Many examples of such aid are given, and Fairclough argues that many others likely will never become known. "It is sheer good luck, for example, that the composer Isaak Schwarz discovered that Shostakovich had been secretly paying for his Conservatoire education."
(If you are as ignorant as I apparently am, follow the link to the Wikipedia bio of Schwarz, which has nuggets such as this: "Schwartz's father was professor of archeology at the Leningrad State University: he was arrested in 1936 and executed two years later as part of the Great Purge." Of course, as we are dealing with the Cyrillic alphabet, Fairclough and Wikipedia use different spellings. Remember Woody Allen's old joke that the Russian Revolution picked up steam when the peasants suddenly realized the Tsar and the Czar were the same person?)
Fairclough's attention to information that would keep the reader interested extends to chronicling Shostakovich's love life. She has carefully tracked down photos of nearly all of his wives and girlfriends, (revealing that without exception they were rather good looking) and includes delicious details of Shostakovich's romantic triumphs and mistakes, including this memorable account of his ill-fated courtship of his second wife, Margarita Kainova, a Komsomol official:
" ... called to Shostakovich's apartment to meet Margarita, [Shostakovich pal Lev] Lebedinsky reported that, on her departure, Shostakovich confessed he had just proposed to her. 'Why on earth did you do that?' he enquired. 'Well, that's what has happened and I can't get out of it now' was Shostakovich's reply. Pressed on whether he was in love with her, Shostakovich mumbled 'No'."
The marriage lasted five years; his first and third marriages worked out much better.
Nina Varzar, the composer's first wife
I would like to have read something about Shostakovich's relationship with Sergei Prokofiev, but Fairclough apparently could not cover everything.
It seems to me that Fairclough's pithy account would please many readers who know Shostakovich's music pretty well. And it will also serve as a good account for people who are beginning an interest in the composer.
Update: Professor Fairclough clarifies her opinions on the fourth versus the tenth symphonies: "Incidentally, my favourite Shostakovich symphony is indeed No. 4. It's just that the Tenth is something special in the skill of its construction and I think it is his 'best' but that definitely doesn't make it my own favourite."
I'm here to plug Simone Lamsma's recording, above, of Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Opus 772, and Sofia Gubaidulina’s In tempus praesens. It's a good recording. But first, let me mention something else I enjoy about her.
If you check out the official website, you'll see that the biography page has this statement, which apparently is so important it is actually posted twice:
This biography is not to be edited without approval. If you wish to amend or shorten this biography, please do so and send it to Sylvia Ferreira for approval prior to publication at sylvia@solea-management.com
We update our biographies regularly. Please destroy all previous biographical material.
Isn't that amusingly arrogant? Not, "please use the current biography," but "Please destroy all previous biographical material." Thank goodness, I don't have any printouts of old biographies of Simone Lamsma laying around the house. What if the wrong person got his hands on it!? Imagine the horror!
In any case, I got interested in Simone Lamsma listening to a live recording of her performing the Shostakovich, and I'm happy to recommend this recording. Starting with this blog post, I want to mention if any album I am discussing is on one of the streaming music services offered free by public libraries in the U.S.; this particular album is on Freegal.
Here is a video of Lamsma and conductor James Gaffigan talking about the Shostakovich piece:
When I think about the way Russians dominated classical music in the 20th century, I focus on the many great composers, not just Prokofiev and Shostakovich and Stravinsky, but all of the lesser-known figures who also were good, such as the folks I wrote about this blog. In a recent book review for the Wall Street Journal, Norman Lebrecht notes another argument:
This may not be the timeliest moment to proclaim Russia’s creative superiority, but the musical facts are incontrovertible. Over the past century, Russia has produced most of the world’s outstanding pianists, from Rachmaninov and Horowitz at the dawn of recording to Daniil Trifonov and Igor Levit right now.
I guess it's not the timeliest moment, either, to revive a blog dedicated to Russian classical music ....
I have a soft spot for Lebrecht because he loves my favorite piano player, Sviatoslav Richter, but the review in question, of the book Playing with Fire: The Story of Maria Yudina, Pianist in Stalin's Russia by Elizabeth Wilson, covers a pianist I was unfamiliar with, Maria Yudina. Look like I have some more reading to do.
Riccardo Chailly is a big name Italian conductor, and he's done the sort of projects you'd expect from an important conductor: A Brahms symphony cycle, the Mahler symphonies, etc.
But he's also demonstrated an ability for interesting programming on his recordings, and I wanted to call attention to his Prokofiev/Mosolov/Varèse album, pictured above, which puts mid-1920s compositions in dialogue, and which also counts as a (mostly) Russian Futurist album.
The album features a good performance of Prokofiev's Third Symphony and also includes Alexander Mosolov's Iron Foundry and Edgard Varèse's Arcana.
Prokofiev composed his Symphony No. 3 in 1928, Iron Foundry was written in 1926 or 1927 and Arcana was written 1925-1927, so all of the music dates to about the same period. And it's good that Chailly took the occasion to introduce Mosolov to listeners who might only have known about Prokofiev and Varèse.
Quartet Berlin-Tokyo. From left, Dmitri Pavlov, Tsuyoshi Moriya, Ruiko Matsumoto and Gregor Hrabar.
When Quartet Berlin-Tokyo decided to do a world-premiere recording of Gavriil Popov's 57-minute "Quartet-Symphony," the 1951 String Quartet in C Major, Op. 61, the members didn't want to be rushed. So the quartet created its own record label, taking four weeks for the recording, as violist Gregor Hrabar explains in the interview below.
The new album, which also includes a shorter piece by Czech composer Erwin Schulhoff, "Five Pieces for String Quartet," has received rave reviews. And fans of Popov are happy to be able to hear nearly an hour of his music for the first time; many of his compositions apparently remain unrecorded. The CD can be purchased directly from the group and is available from many of the usual online outlets and streaming services.
Quartet Berlin-Tokyo features musicians from all over the world. Violinist Tsuyoshi Moriya and cellist Ruiko Matsumoto are from Japan. Violinist Dmitri Pavlov was born in Russia, but his family emigrated to Israel. Gregor Hrabar was born in Slovenia but also has studied music in Austria and Berlin. Learn more about the group at the official site at https://www.quartetberlintokyo.com/.
The new album is the first issued by the quartet's own record label, "QBT Collection," as Hrabar explained when I interviewed him by email:
Russian Futurism: Can you say something about how your quartet discovered the Gavriil Popov "Quartet Symphony," and why you decided to feature it on your first recording?
Gregor Hrabar: We were approached by a composer friend of ours, who also wrote a book about forgotten Soviet composers. In his opinion Popov was one of the greatest, if not the greatest of them all. So when we had a look at the score and gave it a shot, we immediately knew we wanted to record it. To record it with a label was impossible for us back in the day due to financial reasons, plus we didn't want to go through yet another recording session where you would maybe have 5 days under microphones, trying to reach the deadline and focusing on not making mistakes, instead of taking time and pushing the limits. Thus "QBT Collection" was born.
Russian Futurism: Can you tell me the name of your composer friend, and his or her book? I would love to read it, if it's available in English.
Gregor Hrabar: His name is Boris Yoffe. He is a good friend of the quartet and his "Quartettbuch" miniatures kept our spirits up during lockdown's restrictions of performing. 37 of them landed on YouTube as part of our "Micro-Concerts" series and more are still to come. His book is called "Im Fluss des Symphonischen", though I'm not sure if it has ever been translated to English. You can find the German copy under this link, at https://www.wolke-verlag.de/musikbuecher/boris-yoffe-im-fluss-des-symphonischen/.
Russian Futurism: You mentioned that having your own label allowed you to take your time with the recording, and do it right. How long did it take to record the album?
Gregor Hrabar: The recording process itself took us four weeks, and it took me a total of four months to edit it. We had a sort of a gentleman's agreement that the recording session will be an open-end production without stress of deadlines, only finishing when everyone is happy. Of course one cannot overstretch into a never-ending process, as there will be a certain time window of productivity. Still, we loved the idea of slow-cooking the pieces, as it became a very pleasant experience, even if incredibly intense. For myself in particular, as I took on the role of the sound engineer and producer, basically living with the score and the audio takes day and night.
Russian Futurism: Can you say anything yet about upcoming recording projects?
Gregor Hrabar: The plan is to have two recording sessions per season. One will be for an annual release, as the concept is to introduce a new album each year. The other will be for a bigger production, containing more works of a single composer, which will, of course, take more time to finish, especially now that concerts and tours are starting again. Recording of Vol.2 is scheduled for the second half of August. Apart from our own production, we are planning to record all the Op.33 of Joseph Haydn this year, by a kind invitation of EuroArts who will produce a DVD in Austria and Japan.
Gregor Hrabar
Russian Futurism: I have heard you might be recording more Russian music, can you comment on that yet?
Gregor Hrabar: It's currently too soon to confirm that I'm afraid. With Popov and Schulhoff being such absolute unanimous choices of the group and Popov being such a titan, it has been difficult to find a piece that could fill such big shoes. Also research into the unknown is tricky and it takes time, with outcomes being uncertain until the very end. But we do share very big love for the Slavic repertoire.
Russian Futurism: Is Quartet Berlin-Tokyo going to tour the U.S. anytime soon?
Gregor Hrabar: It is certainly a wish an a plan in motion, yes. The CD and Popov himself seem to have quite a big fandom in the States to our big surprise (Schulhoff too, which seems to be less known there), and we have shipped quite a few copies there already. The request of people being able to hear it live as well is growing and if it does turn out to happen, it will most likely be in 2024 or later.
Russian Futurism: Your band is truly international, as your name implies. How did you get together? Is English the "lingua franca" you use to talk to each other?
Gregor Hrabar: My colleagues met in 2011 as members of HfM "Hanns Eisler" and UDK in Berlin. I joined them in 2018. As languages go, it is a rather funny mixture of English, German and Japanese. Sometimes a bit of Slavic too, depending on how heated the conversation is 😛
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