Kabalevsky: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 And 2

Description

Dmitry Borisovich Kabalevsky (1904-1987)Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2An equivocal figure in Russian music of the Soviet era,Dmitry Borisovich Kabalevsky was born in StPetersburg on 30th December 1904. He studied at theMoscow Conservatory with both Nicolay Myaskovskyand Alexander Goldenweiser, graduating incomposition (1929) then piano (1930), and wasappointed a senior lecturer in 1932 and a full professorin 1939. Riding out the ideological storm of the 1920s asa member of both the progressive Association of SovietMusicians and the 'conservative' Russian Associationof Proletarian Musicians, he found his mature style inthe following decade, notably through two works whichachieved international success: the Second Symphony(1934), championed by conductors such as ArturoToscanini and Malcolm Sargent, evinces the drama andlyricism that Prokofiev made central to his music onreturning to the Soviet Union; the opera ColasBreugnon (1938), based on the novel by RomainRolland, combines Western European neo-Classicismand stylized Russian folk-music to potent dramaticeffect.Although his suite The Comedians (1940) hasenjoyed a lasting popularity, and his work for the theatreand cinema gained an official approval such that he wasone of the few significant Soviet composers not to becensored by the notorious 'Zhdanov Decree' of 1948(though some commentators believe he only avoidedbeing blacklisted by persuading officials to substituteMyaskovsky's name for his own), Kabalevsky wasunable to sustain a comparable level of success in hismusic of the post-war era. His later operas failed to holdthe Soviet stage, and though certain piano works,notably the Second and Third Piano Sonatas (1945 and1946), and the 24 Preludes (1944), have remained at theperiphery of the modern repertoire, his greatest successwas with such works as the Cello Sonata (1962) and theSecond Cello Concerto (1964), whose often broodingand introspective manner feel essentially at odds withthe r??le of the dutiful citizen to which Kabalevskyaspired as a Soviet artist, and that led him openly tocriticize those younger colleagues who pursued a moreexperimental path in the 1960s and 1970s.Seen from this perspective, Kabalevsky's mostlasting achievement was in the field of music education,notably his development in later years of a programmefor music in schools which, along with his piano andchoral output for children and young people, offerssimilarities with the didactic activities of oldercontemporaries such as Zoltan Kodaly and Carl Orff.Save for some elegiac song-cycles and a Fourth PianoConcerto, he completed few significant works in thedecade prior to his death in Moscow on 14th February1987.Although he composed four symphonies, as well asovertures, tone poems and suites, Kabalevsky'ssequence of concertos, four for piano, two for cello andone for violin, rank as his most significant orchestralmusic. Written in a direct and generally accessiblemanner, they respect the strictures of Soviet musicalpolicy