GALINA USTVOLSKAYA (1919-2006)
VALENTIN SILVESTROV (b. 1937)
GIYA KANCHELI (b. 1935)
WORKS FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA
ELISAVETA BLUMINA, piano
STUTTGART CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
THOMAS SANDERLING, conductor
“This is a very interesting CD project, which combines the works of three outstanding composers, who not only share very strong individual and different creative personalities that sets them apart from any school or aesthetic movement, but who are also all of them natives of East Europe, highlighting the creative potential of that part of the world.
All of the artists involved in the project – soloist Elisaveta Blumina, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and myself – shared much enthusiasm during the recordings. We hope listeners will experience the same pleasure that we had in recording these works.”
– Thomas Sanderling
About this Recording
With two world première recordings, this programme highlights the Romantic and spiritual side of contemporary music from Russia and Eastern Europe. Galina Ustvolskaya’s early Concerto expresses a vision of beauty and suffering in a tonal language quite unlike her later works. Giya Kancheli’s Sio or ‘breeze’ is notable for its striking use of silence, as well as modal tunes, bass drones and wide dynamic extremes derived from Georgian folk music. Silvestrov’s devotional Hymn reflects his approach to music as “a song the world sings about itself”. Elisaveta Blumina’s acclaimed recording of Silvestrov’s solo piano works can be heard on GP639.
TOTAL TIME: 58:03
ELISAVETA BLUMINA
Prize Winner of the Award Echo Classic, Elisaveta Blumina is much in demand in the most prestigious concert halls of Europe. A child prodigy, she made her concert début as a soloist at the age of sixteen with the Leningrad Symphony Orchestra directed by Alexander Polyanichko with Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1. She continued her studies at the University of Music and Theatre in Hamburg and later at the Conservatoire in Berne, with teachers including András Schiff, Evgeni Koroliov, Radu Lupu and Bruno Canino. She won the the International Brahms Piano Competition which culminated in her acclaimed recording of Brahms’ Piano Sonata No. 2 and Klavierstücke, Op. 76. She is recognised as one of the most important interpreters of modern Russian repertoire, and her Mieczysław Weinberg recordings have won wide acclaim. Her career has taken her to venues such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Laeisz-Halle in Hamburg and Carnegie Hall in New York.
THOMAS SANDERLING
Thomas Sanderling was born in Leningrad on October 2, 1942. His father, celebrated conductor Kurt Sanderling, was forced to flee Germany in 1936. Studying first at the Leningrad Conservatory, then at the Hochschule für Musik in East Berlin, by his mid-twenties, Sanderling was conducting in all East Germany’s principal orchestras and opera houses, including the Dresden Staatskapelle and the Leipzig Gewandhaus, and won the Berlin Critics’ Prize for his opera performances at the Komische Oper Berlin.
In the 1970s he developed a friendship with the declining Shostakovich, who presented Sanderling with scores to his Thirteenth and Fourteenth symphonies, of which Sanderling later led the German premières. Sanderling’s première recording of Shostakovich’s Michaelangelo Suite directly led to his becoming assistant to both Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein.
Despite his close association with the music of Dmitry Shostakovich, his repertory is broad, encompassing Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, and Dvorak, as well as moderns like Karl Weigl and Americans Menotti, Barber, and Tobias Picker. He has conducted a mixture of orchestras worldwide, generally to critical acclaim, and made a number of successful recordings.
STUTTGART CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Founded by Karl Münchinger in 1945, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra has held a prominent position in the international orchestral world for some seven decades. Münchinger, who was principal conductor of the orchestra for over forty years, was able to attract a small group of élite players in the early days to realise his vision of a completely new and exemplary way of interpreting works by Johann Sebastian Bach and the Viennese classicists. Principal conductors who have succeeded Munchinger include Dennis Russell Davies (1995-2006), Michael Hofstetter (2006-2013), and Matthias Foremny (2013-present). For its exceptional achievements, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra was awarded the 2008 European Chamber Music Prize by the European Cultural Foundation. The Orchestra is supported by the Land Baden-Württemberg, the City of Stuttgart and the company Robert Bosch GmbH.
Also Available
- International Record Review
- Fanfare
