Melodiya released Mendelssohn and Schumann concertos performed by Alena Baeva and Persimfans.
Mendelssohn’s famous Violin Concerto in E minor was performed by Alena Baeva in the recently found “version of 1844” (published in 2018). The composer’s version reveals a number of differences from the well-known edition of Ferdinand David (violinist and a friend of Mendelssohn, for whom the concerto was written) and opens a new chapter in the performing history of this immortal composition.
The Schumann concerto is known much less. This is his last orchestral piece, which his family hid shortly after Schumann’s death with the remark “not to be performed for 100 years” without acknowledging it as one of the most beautiful romantic works. The circumstances under which the concerto was revealed in 1937 will forever remain the most incredible in the history of classical music. The premiere became an important political event: on the eve of World War II, several countries fought for the right to perform the concerto for the first time.
Violinist Alena Baeva is a winner of some of the major international competitions like the 2001 Wieniawski Competition, the 2004 Paganini Competition, and the 2007 Sendai Competition. She is a welcome guest on the world’s best stages. She has regularly performed with renowned conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Teodor Currentzis, Vladimir Jurowski, Paavo Järvi, and many others.
According to Alena Baeva, the idea of the project with Persimfans, a legendary orchestra without a conductor, arose from “the desire for freedom of musical thought and maximum concentration, inspiration and communication, ideally embodied in chamber music performance.”
Persimfans is the first symphony ensemble without a conductor, which existed in the 1920s in the USSR and was revived on the initiative of the multi-talented musician Peter Aidu in 2009.
Persimfans was formed in 1922 as the world's first orchestra without a conductor. Born of the revolutionary idea of “collective work,” the experiment turned out to be more than successful: Persimfans’ regular concerts became a vivid manifestation of Moscow’s cultural life. “Persimfans plays perfectly well, very clearly, distinctly, with expression, with enthusiasm... At the end of their concert, the audience goes wild,” wrote Sergei Prokofiev about his performance with the legendary orchestra. Joseph Szigeti, Miron Polyakin, Arthur Rubinstein, Vladimir Horowitz, Vladimir Sofronitsky, Maria Yudina, and Heinrich Neuhaus performed with the orchestra. Although Persimfans had radio broadcast on the radio and appeared in newsreels, its recordings have not survived.
Grigory Krotenko, a double bass player and commissioner of the board, says, “We worked on the album on the stage of the Grand Hall of the Conservatory. It was a ‘home’ of the ensemble in the 1920s. Rehearsals and famous Persimfans Mondays took place here. Many members of the ensemble who were conservatory professors taught here and lived in the neighboring building. The combination of acoustics and Persimfans circular seating is extremely authentic. With all the care of an outstanding professional, Mikhail Spassky captured this sound picture. We are glad to see and hear Alena Baeva and her Guarneri violin in the place of the legendary Leo Zeitlin. We recorded concerts not as a banal orchestral ‘accompaniment,’ but as pieces for chamber performance. This is what makes our recording historically authentic and novel.”
