This new release is the first of seven volumes featuring the music of Ukraine-born composer Alexey Shor.
‘This album is particularly meaningful to me because it includes the Suite for Piano and Orchestra No. 1, “Travel Notebook”, the first significant work for piano and orchestra that I ever composed. It encapsulates a series of impressions from my visits to various countries and, marking a milestone in my journey as a composer, holds a very special place for me. At the other end of the spectrum is the Violin Concerto No. 4, a much later work. I find it interesting to observe the differences in my approach over the years when these two pieces are juxtaposed as they are here.’
– Alexey Shor, Composer
Alexey SHOR (b. 1970)
Composer’s Notebook, Vol. 1
Travel Notebook, Suite for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 *
Violin Concerto No. 4 **
Marc Bouchkov, Violin ** • Anna Ulaieva, Piano *Kyiv Virtuosi
John Warner ** • Dmitry Yablonsky *
Travel Notebook, Suite for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 by Ukrainian composer Alexey Shor is cast in a neo-Classical vein. It offers personal impressions of places he has visited, with music that is harmonically traditional and melodic. Violin Concerto No. 4, composed during the Covid pandemic, is a restless, passionate and romantic work, displaying Shor’s trademark lyricism. Both works are heard in the composer’s versions with string orchestra.
IV. Luxembourg Garden (inspired by visiting Paris)
Belgian violinist Marc Bouchkov has performed at numerous prestigious concert halls, including Wigmore Hall, Teatro alla Scala and Carnegie Hall. He is a winner of several top awards, including а gold medal at the Concours musical international de Montréal and a silver medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition. A fine chamber musician, he is a regular guest of the Verbier Festival (Switzerland) and he also serves as a professor at the Conservatoire royal de Liège.
Ukrainian-Austrian pianist Anna Ulaieva began her musical journey at the age of five, mastering both violin and piano. By eleven she had garnered numerous competition prizes, and chose to study piano under Nina Naiditsch and later at the Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music in Kyiv with Yuri Kot. She won First Prize at the 2018 Malta International Piano Competition and is acclaimed for her solo performances, chamber concerts and collaborations with esteemed orchestras worldwide.
Conductor John Warner is founder and artistic director of Orchestra for the Earth and music director of Oxford Opera. The 2023–2024 season saw him debut with the Berliner Symphoniker, Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, Slovak State Philharmonic and State Philharmonia of Armenia. He has also conducted the London Symphony Orchestra and BBC Philharmonic. Equally at home in the opera house, recent invitations include Glyndebourne, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia and Opéra national de Paris.
Born in Moscow, GRAMMY Award-nominated cellist and conductor Dmitry Yablonsky has performed at prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, Teatro alla Scala and Théâtre Mogador, and as a conductor he has worked with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM, Mexico, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2010 he received the Diploma of Honorary Academician at the Independent Academy of Liberal Arts at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Kyiv Virtuosi has gained national and international recognition from audiences and critics as one of Ukraine’s leading orchestras. With an average age of 30, this youthful ensemble unites talented musicians from all over Ukraine, most of whom are competition winners. The orchestra built its reputation by bringing Western music to Ukrainian audiences and has also become known for its collaborations with outstanding contemporary composers such as Krzysztof Penderecki, Valentin Silvestrov and Myroslav Skoryk.
Symphony No. 7
Ode to a Nightingale • Piano Concertino
Galatenko • Bezborodko
Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra
Lyndon-Gee
– Gramophone
– Crescendo
Concertos for Orchestra
SILVESTROV, V.:
Elegie • Abschiedsserenade
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Karabits
– MusicWeb International
– Fanfare