“Melodiya” presents the 5th disc of the Anthology of Piano Music by Russian and Soviet Composers which demonstrates musical trends of the last decades. The featured authors – Rodion Shchedrin, Vladimir Ryabov and Alexander Tchaikovsky – are presented with large-scale works. Despite all the differences between them, there is one thing in common about these composers – synthesis of very different, at times contrary musical traditions, styles and directions. Each of the three composers alloys the material so heterogeneous in content into an organic and characteristic stylistic whole.
Shchedrin’s Sonata No. 2 so benign for a virtuosic performer combines supreme composer’s mastery with clear contours of a traditional image of ‘classical’ sonata and brilliant piano technique. On the contrary, Alexander Tchaikovsky’s Sonata is more free by its form and notable for mournful and tragic figurativeness. The Piano Bagatelles by Vladimir Ryabov are a synthesis of diverse style attributes in a sort of romantic unity so characteristic of the composer’s hand. The disc also features a composition
Variations on a Theme by Paganini by Nikita Mndoyants, a young composer and brilliant pianist, a student of Alexander Tchaikovsky. A too well-known music material is presented here in a new light.
