Classical and Modern Music
Format: CD
Code: 111815
EAN: 3838898111815
Foreign platforms:
The third volume of the record series under the title BRAVO ORKESTER, performed by the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of the chief conductor En Shao, features popular works by two great Russian composers – Dmitri Shostakovich and Rodion Shchedrin. The soloists are the trumpet player Matej Rihter and
the cellist Colin Carr.
The RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra was established in 1955 and soon developed into an elite performing group. From its inception up until 1966, it was led by the conductor, composer and violinist Uroš Prevoršek. After 1966, the principal conductors were Samo Hubad (1966–1980), Stanislav Macura (1981–1982), Anton Nanut (1982–1998), Lior Shambadal (2000–2003) and David de Villiers (2003–2006). Currently it is directed by
the excellent Chinese conductor En Shao. To date, the orchestra has had more than 1300 concerts and a number of tours abroad, performing at numerous important music festivals. Besides giving concerts, the orchestra devotes a lot of its attention on recording for the purposes of radio and television programs for RTV Slovenia. It has recorded the majority of symphonic works by Slovenian composers and much of the classical symphonic repertoire. Its recordings have been released on more than 500
albums, all of them receiving glowing reviews.
En Shao, the chief conductor of the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, is also the principal guest conductor of the China National Symphony Orchestra, as well as the music director and principal conductor of the Taipei Chinese Orchestra. His brilliant career began after winning the Sixth Hungarian Television International Conductor's Competition in 1989. Since then, he has been invited to conduct renowned orchestras
throughout Europe, the USA and Asia.
The trumpet player Matej Rihter successfully completed his university and postgraduate education with Anton Grčar. During his studies he won prizes in several competitions, both as a soloist and as a member of different chamber groups. Since 1999 he has been a member of the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, and since 2002 a member of the Slovenian Brass Quintet and a co-founder of the BUM Brass Trio. As a soloist, he has
performed with various orchestras. He is a music teacher and an all-around musician.
The Liverpool-born English cellist Colin Carr is a highly acclaimed teacher and performer. He teaches at the Royal College of Music in London and at the Stony Brook University in New York. He has collaborated with some of the most important orchestras and conductors. Colin Carr is also regarded as an outstanding chamber musician. He is the winner of many prestigious international awards, including Second Prize in the
Rostropovich International Cello Competition.
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) is an interesting and special figure in the music history scene, and probably the only composer who experienced both the terror and the glory of the Soviet regime firsthand, in the strongest way possible. In the West, only his compositions were known, very few people were acquainted with the difficulties he had to endure with the government. Once harshly criticised and almost forced to
stop composing, another time honoured with the highest Soviet awards, Shostakovich struggled throughout his life as an artist, trying to survive.
Festive Overture in A major, Opus 96, was written in 1954 to commemorate the 37th anniversary of the October Revolution. The piece was commissioned by Vassili Nebolsin, the conductor of the Bolshoi Theater. Shostakovich set to work on the overture with great speed as it had to be composed within three days and actually completing it in time. It was based on Glinka's Russlan and Ludmilla overture, and it features the same lively tempo and style of melody. Whilst the style reflects
Shostakovich, the piece as a whole uses very conventional classical devices of both form and harmony.
The Suite for Variety Orchestra consists of a collection of eight movements of different characters, which derive from Shostakovich’s ballet, film and incidental works, penned between 1930 and 1950. One that is particularly popular is the seventh movement, “Waltz No. 2”, with its melancholic, almost sad melody. This piece was used as part of the soundtrack for Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut.
The Cello Concerto No. 1 in E Flat Major, Opus 107, was composed in 1959. The work is dedicated to Shostakovich’s friend Mstislav Rostropovich. The frenzy with which Shostakovich was known to compose seems to have infected the soloist as well – he only had four days to learn it. The four-note main theme of the first movement is derived from the composer’s DSCH motif – a musical cryptogram in the manner of the BACH motif, standing for the composer’s initials in the German transliteration (D.
Sch.). The second movement is initially elegiac in tone, with a long melody being passed between the cello and the orchestra. It finishes with the substantial cadenza, which stands as a movement in itself. The driving finale includes quotations from his other works.
Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin (born in 1932) is a Russian composer, who in his 60 year long career gained a reputation as one of the most popular contemporary composers in the world. The typical characteristics of his style are eclecticism, merging different musical styles and genres, and above all, the use of material from Russian folk music. Shchedrin continues the tradition of Mikhail Glinka and The Five, and he soon accepted the fact that no Russian could really escape
from Russia.
The Trumpet Concerto was written for the Pittsburgh Symphony and was first performed in 1994. The work has a classical three-movement structure. The features of the concerto are the smooth sound of the trumpet, the economical orchestration and the clear musical thought imbued with neoclassical elements. Shchedrin once again shows that he is a Russian composer as he stays true to the Russian folk song and tradition.
The Concerto for Orchestra No. 1 was written in 1963 and is dedicated to Gennady Rozhdestvensky, the conductor, who premiered this eight-minute work with the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra. The Russian title “Ozorniye chastushki” is usually translated into English as “Naughty Limericks”. A “chastushka” is a free-spirited, sometimes irreverent form of folk song, full of humor, irony and sharp satire. These characteristics are reflected in the deliberately primitive melody of a chosen few
notes, driving syncopated rhythm, improvisation and repetition involving variation. This virtuosic work is one of the composer’s most frequently performed masterpieces.
Monika Kartin and Žiga Stanič
Translation: Aljoša Vrščaj
