VVCD-00067
DDD

Georgy Sviridov
Small Tryptich
It Is Snowing
The Poem to the Memory of Sergei Esenin

Tchaikovsky Symphony orchestra
Vladimir Fedoseyev

The first performance of The Poem to the Memory of Sergei Yesenin for tenor, mixed chorus and orchestra, on May 31, 1956, marked a momentous event in the history of the Russian culture. It was this composition that presented the genius of Georgy Sviridov to the world. Till that day there had been twenty years of creative work, quite a great fame as even the first composition by the 20-years old Sviridov, a vocal cycle written on the Pushkin's poems, attracted a great deal of attention of the public. There had also been some agonizing attempts to gradually overcome the influence of his teacher, Dmitry Shostakovich, under whose tutorship Sviridov studied at the Leningrad Conservatoire in 1937 - 1941. However there had been one thing that he did not possess till that day: his own theme in music. And that day the Artist and the Theme met each other.
The Poem to the Memory of Sergei Yesenin shows Sviridov's main aesthetic priority, New Traditionalism. His music is simple, sometimes quiescent. But this simplicity is of a very complicated organization. The traditional musical language absorbs the achievements of the XX century music, sonority and neo-folklorism. There was a common enthusiasm for avant-gardism which was at last permitted in the Soviet Union at the time even if in limited doses. Sviridov went against the current - towards a natural Russian singing intonation. The Poem became for him the first step deep into the heart of the national tradition. Later on this road quite naturally took him to the complete rejection of the secular music. As from the early 80s the composer writes exceptionally sacred music. And the ancient Orthodox liturgical singing written down by special symbols borrowed from the ancient Slavonic and Greek alphabets became an intonational basis of his music.
It Is Snowing (A Short Cantata for Choir and Symphony Orchestra) is probably the first case when the Russian music turned to the poetry of Boris Pasternak. It was written in 1965. Especially remarkable is the unusual treatment of the choir in the Cantata. Sviridov employs the choir not so much for communicating melodious expressiveness but colours. For instance in the first movement, It Is Snowing, the choir sings only two repeating notes. Staccato sounds dominate both in the choir and orchestra in the third movement, Night.
Small Tryptich for Orchestra is one of few Sviridov's orchestral works. It nonetheless is closely connected with the main vocal line in his creative work. The first movement is built up on the intonations of the ancient Orthodox liturgical singing. The third movement recalls the images of the Old Times Russia. The second movement appears to be most enigmatic. It brings memories of severe beauty of nature, massive temples, and bloody episodes of the Russian history. An unexpected association, the forth movement of Schumann's Third "Rhennish" Symphony with its majestic picture of the cathedral in Kolon. The music of the Small Tryptich was used in a legendary staging of the Czar Feodor Ioanovich play at the Moscow Maly Theater.

Mikhail Segelman

Vladimir Fedoseev was borh in Leningrad and studied in Moscow at the Gnesins Academy of Music and then did postgraduate studies at Moscow Conservatoire with Professor Leo Ginzburg. In 1971 he was invited by Evgeny Mravinsky to guest conduct the Leningrad Philarmonic Orchestra. Since 1974 Vladimir Fedoseev has been working as the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Tchaikovsky Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra .He also collaborates with leading orchestras in Europe including Zurich’s Tonhalle, Leipcig’s Gevandhaus, Orchestre de Paris, Bavarian Radio Orchestra. In 1996 he was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1997 Vladimir Fedoseev was appointed Chief Conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. As a highly acclaimed operatic conductor Fedoseev is a regular guest conductor at the Zurich Opera as well as Opera Theatres in Milano, Paris, Vienna, Bologna, Florence…
In 1996 he was awarded the prestigious Russian Order for Services to the Motherland and the same year he received from the Austrian Republic the Silver Cross for his services to music in Austria. He was also awarded the Golden Star of the honourable citizen of Vienna and its territory in October 2002.

Total time: 54.02