Includes unlimited streaming of Dmitri Shostakovich: The Gadfly Suite, Op. 97A I Georgy Sviridov: Snowstorm
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This album is dedicated to two masterpieces of Russian film
music. It is also a reminiscence to Saulius Sondeckis, one of the
figureheads of the former Soviet Union chamber music scene, who
died last year, and to Georgy Sviridov, whose 20th anniversary
of death is around the corner next year.
The Gadfly Suite. Since his studenthood at the Leningrad
Conservatory Dmitri Shostakovich had developed a strong
connection to cinema. In the twenties of the last century he
earned his living as a pianist at silent movie theatres, and the
influence of this new media, which became highly important in the
young Soviet Union, went along with the composer for a lifetime
testified by an output of nearly 40 film scores.
In 1955 Alexander Fainzimmer made a film based on the novel
„The Gadfly“ by the English authoress Ethel Lilian Voynich, which
was extremely popular and a bestseller in the Soviet Union. It was
about the tragic story of a young freedom fighter in 19th-century
Italy nicknamed „Gadfly“, who, as an illegitimate son of a cardinal
ultimately turned into a rebelling dandy, who was finally
executed by a firing squad. Shostakovich was intrigued by the
plot and the environment where it took place, since this allowed
him to play with Mediterranean musical patterns. Shostakovich’s
associate and friend Levon Atovmian condensed the complete
score down to a suite, consisting of twelve movements, which
were used for this recording. The single titles already give an idea
of what the music is about – pure entertainment, characterising
the moving pictures by means of the music. A contredanse
recalling the 18th century, an Italian tarantella type characterising
a funfair, unusual classical instruments such as saxophone and
hurdy-gurdy reminiscences during a humorous waltz, a romance,
which recalls the famous „Méditation“ from Saint-Saëns
„Thaïs“ (easygoing enough to become later the main theme of the
British TV series „Reilly, Ace of Spies“) – this is musical
mainstream at the highest level making the listening of this
colourful and diverse suite a genuine pleasure.
Snowstorm. Georgy Sviridov’s roots in Russian folk music made
his connection to Alexander Pushkin nearly inevitable. So when in
1964 the film director Vladimir Basov planned a filmization of
Pushkin’s Snowstorm, he approached Sviridov, who agreed by
return. His musical depiction of the film, based on a short story
from Pushkin’s Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin, proves his
talent and creativeness in folkloristic musical composition, using
at the same time romantic stylistic elements, including the large
romantic symphony orchestra. The richness of his musical
language inspired by the poetic strength of Pushkin’s writing
creates a scent of Hollywood flavour, which might not be a
coincidence. The last scene from Snowstorm „Winter Road“ was
allegedly plagiarized and used as the main theme for the popular
video game series „Metal Gear Solid“.
The present release comes from the 24 bit /96 khz state-of-the-at
recordings out of the CuGate Classics archive. They are carefully
remastered by the prestigious Grammy award-winning b-sharp
studio Berlin using the original source material.
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