# The Russians Are Coming. Be Afraid.



## ChrisDevonshireEllis (May 12, 2013)

Forget Tchaikovsky, Rimsky, Mussorgsky, Borodin, Glinka, Prokofiev, Shoshtakovich and all those guys. We're gonna talk about Popov, Khrennikov, Salmonov and all those geezers. This thread is about Russian Music, seriously Soviet Style, the guys who didn't get their Melodiya pressings released in the West. 
So what you got? Who do you recommend?


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

These are two good CDs









Lots of interesting early 20th century piano works. Not as avant garde as the title might suggest compared to later 60s works as this was 1910s-20s Russian modernism before the soviet system squashed them but quite percussive, electrifying works.









This is another good set, mostly orchestral and chamber works from many of the same names: Mosolov, Gnesin, Goedicke, Kirkor, Knipper, Krein, Roslavets.









And a third set from the Northern Flowers label of mainly orchestral. At least 16 volumes now, a few well known names like Shostakovitch and Prokofiev but more obscure composers too, such as Tishchenko who I especially like.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Have been collecting such names for a long time, yet new obscure composers keep turning up. An acquaintance recently informed me that he collected LPs of works by "_Aladov, Dankevich, Kos-Anatolsky, Vagner (Heinrich), Tikotsky, Sinisalo, Shtogarenko, Podkovyrov, Lydukevich_" ...

I like & know *Stanislav Lyudkevich* (1879-1979) though for example, sparsely available, whose neo-romantic 3rd piano concerto is on you-t




& whose museum in Lviv, Ukraine, I visited a couple of years ago.

An apparently really great composer was *Yuri Levitin* (1910-1993), who had great melodic gifts it seems, and whose playful Oboe Concerto is on you-t 



 The few of his string quartets that have been recorded seem to be of high quality, quite inventive, more intimate and often dark. Unfortunately none on you-t.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

*Otar Taktakishvili* (1924-1989) 



 and *Arno Babadchanian* (1921-19839 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpad-paVuhEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6vhXaIz-fc are among those from the former USSR republics who composed really beautifully violin concertos.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

I use Onno van Rijen's site as a basic reference for *Soviet Composers*, it is a good place to look for info on this subject! Mr van Rijen also run a specialist board on the subject!

/ptr


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I was fortunate enough to collect a few Olympia and Russian Disc recordings before both went belly up: Kollontai, Boiko, Lyatoshinsky, Shebalin, Popov, Nosyrev... Pity I couldn't get more before prices went haywire.

Kollontai's Six Sacred Symphonies reminded me of mid-late Gorecki.

Nosyrev's four discs of orchestral works bring to mind an amalgam of DSCH and Prokofiev but with more than sufficient individuality. I'm particularly drawn to his works as his story (along with that of Roslavets: see below) was arguably the most tragic of all of those composers who felt Uncle Joe's big stick.

The orchestral works I have of Boiko, Popov and Lyatoshinsky seem relatively conservative but still interesting - I'm guessing all three were keeping their heads down from the post-Zhdanov fallout by the time most of the works I've got were written.

The Shebalin disc is of his first three string quartets which sound fairly uncontroversial but I gather some of his subsequent ones were more spiky.

I've also got some string quartets and piano trios by Roslavets and very rewarding they are, too - had the early Soviet avant-garde (even within certain Socialist parameters) been allowed to evolve unhindered he could have ended up being amongst the most celebrated of them all. Unfortunately, he got into trouble very early - in the mid 1920s praising innovative western works such as Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire was considered counter-revolutionary heresy by the likes of the Proletarian Musicians Association (Uncle Joe himself hadn't started marking the cards of the arty new breed just yet). Roslavets refused to be silenced and suffered further indignations virtually to the point of being held in _damnatio memoriae_ even while still alive. It was possibly only the fact that he suffered a debilitating stroke which saved him from being dealt with even more harshly. His music is still being reconstructed from the papers that managed to avoid confiscation.


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## hello (Apr 5, 2013)

quack said:


> View attachment 17789


Sergei Protopopov... Sergie Prokofiev... Hm.


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

Protopopov->Popov->Artyomov->Antikofiev->Prokofiev

That's how soviet composer chemistry work. A simpler formula is:

Rakov+Mammadov=Rachmaninov


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

quack said:


> Protopopov->Popov->Artyomov->Antikofiev->Prokofiev
> 
> That's how soviet composer chemistry work. A simpler formula is:
> 
> Rakov+Mammadov=Rachmaninov


____ _____ov / ____ ____ ____ov / ______ov

Off, off, off.


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