Release Date: 01 January 2000
Label: Naxos / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 730099455725
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: GUBAIDULINA
Description
SofiaGubaidulina (b.1931) ln croce,for bayan and cello Silenzio, for bayan, violin and cello Sieben Worte (Seven Words), for cello, bayan and strings The composer Sofia Gubaidulina was born in Chistopol' inthe Tatar Soviet Republic in 1931 and studied the pianoat the Music Academy in Kazanafter the war. ln 1949 she entered the Kazan Conservatory where she studiedcomposition with Leman and subsequently with Nikolay Peyko, a pupil of Myaskovskyand Rakov. She continued her studies with Vissarion Shebalin, another pupil of Myaskovsky.She had encouragement from Dmitry Shostakovich, who advised her to ignorehostile criticism from the officiaI musical establishment, and earned a livingin Russia principally by writing filmmusic, while her other music was more widely heard abroad. With political changes in the SovietUnion she was able to travel outside the country, and since 1992 has lived in asmall town near Hamburg. In croce, for cello and bayan, the Russian push-button accordion,was written in 1979 for the Russian cellist Vladimir Toncha. First composed forcello and organ, the work was performed by Toncha and the organist Oleg Yanchenkoin the concert hall of Moscow Conservatory .With the accordionist Elsbeth MoserGubaidulina made an alternative arrangement for cello and bayan in 1992. Thetitle In croce is taken not only frorn the basic nature of the work butalso refers to its structure. While the instruments at the beginning playeither in a high register (bayan) or in low register (cello), in the course ofthe composition they come closer to each other and cross. When the two melodiclines cross, this forms the climax, an explosion of energy. The characteristictonal and instrumental symbolism depends also on the functional use of the twoinstruments. Although both have a common starting-point in the pedal E, theytreat this in different ways. One may compare only the struggles of the cellowith shrill accents, chromaticism and micro-intervals to free itself from thepedal-point with the shimmering figuration of the pedal-point in the bayanpart, where A major appears as a broken triad and also in the form of adiatonic scale. Here there is also thesis and antithesis at the same time, aunion of opposites. Profounder symbolism appears in the coda, when bothinstruments after the stormy and passionate climax come together again, thecello with its quasi-human voice making its own the ethereally illuminatedfiguration over the pedal-point E that was heard at the beginning from thebayan. They free themselves finally in the irridescent sound of the overtoneseries on the A string. In croce is a true meditation on the meaning ofCross. Silenzio, a set of five pieces for bayan, violin and cello, isdedicated to Elsbeth Moser, whose personality served as inspiration for thework. She gave the first performance in Hanover in 1991 with the violinist KathrinRabus and cellist Christoph Marks. The greater part of the work, the composerexplains, is to be play
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Various
Various
Lully
