Galina Ustvolskaya: Piano Concerto; Sofia Gubaidulina: Introitus; Henryk Gorecki: Piano Concerto; Georgs Pelecis: Concertino bianco. Alexei Lubimov (piano), Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie BremenlHeinrich Schiff. Erato 0630- 12709-2(63 mins) Dial-a-track code: 1641
What a strange, if not exactly willing, nurturer of musical diversity the old Soviet Union is turning out to have been. The reclusive Galina Ustvolskaya (born 1919), a pupil of Shostakovich with a startlingly dark musical voice, has begun to emerge from obscurity only in the last few years. The Concerto for Piano, Strings and Timpani of 1946 is one of her earliest works, where the influence of her teacher can clearly be traced in passages of drilled vivacity and yet her characteristic, highly personal, blocky ruggedness is also to be detected.
The Introitus by Sofia Gubaidulina (born 1931) was written in 1978. Its ritualistic and colouristic quests, though much more sophisticated in surface presentation than the Ustvolskaya, are not always carried through without a certain dawdling and indulgence, marking this as one of the composer's less finely worked pieces. The Concerto of 1980 by Poland's senior man of the moment, Henryk Gorecki, can be played on either amplified harpsichord or piano. It's a short (eight minute), spikily minimalist piece which keeps its soloist busy with breathlessly angular writing.
The Concertino bianco by Latvian Georgs Pelecis (born 1947) is by a long shot the oddest piece on the disc, exhibiting a peculiarly unpalatable blandness which could be described as Michael Nyman crossed with Phil Coulter. The solo performances by pianist Alexei Lubimov, founder of Moscow's Alternativa Festival (and also one of the few Russians to have established a profile as a period instruments performer) are unfailingly vivid. On this intentionally cross sectional CD (it's subtitled Mosaic) he is well supported by the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under Heinrich Schiff, though Erato's recorded perspectives are not always consistent.
Alfred Schnittke: Penitential Pslams; Voices of Nature. Danish National Radio Choir/Stefan Parknian. Chandos CHAN 9480 (50 mins)
Dial-a-track code: 1751
The Penitential Psalms by Alfred Schnittke, settings of 16th century texts by unknown monks, partake of the musical aura of the Orthodox Church. They are at once austere and quietly splendid, and also, as might be expected of Schnittke, at times chromatically venturesome well beyond the normal confines of Orthodox music. The Danish National Radio Choir can't be expected to have quite the ethnic flavour of native Russians. But their performance under Stefan Parkman has a compensating sharptness of focus; and they tackle the Ligeti influenced cloudiness of the wordless Voices of Nature (for women's voices and vibraphone) with equal success.
Arvo Part: Symphony No 3; Fratres; Giya Kancheli: Symphony No 3. David James (counter tenor), LPO/Franz Welser-Must. EMI CDC 5 55619 2 (55 mins)
Dial-a-track code: 1861
Like Schnittke, the Georgian Giya Kancheli and Estonian Arvo Part are both now in their early sixties. Part's Third Symphony of 1971 marked a new direction for the composer, away from the modernism of his earlier music. The symphony sounds almost Sibelian, with frequent references to medieval and renaissance music. The later, even simpler minimalist style is represented by one of the many versions of Fratres, originally written for an Estonian early music ensemble in 1977.
Kancheli's Third Symphony dates tram 1973 and espouses such extremes of dynamic that the CD carries a health warning (for your equipment) about setting too high a listening level! The piece, which opens with a four note Georgian lament (sung here by a counter tenor), works by interleaving and overlapping its chosen extremes (typically quietly plucked strings and stabbing brass) and works up to a climax referentially steeped in early Stravinsky. Like the Part, it's music in which a little goes a long way, in more than senses than one, for anyone who doesn't take to it. Good performances from the LPO under Welser Most.
