MUSIC SAMPLES (MP3)

Bartok

Romanian Dances [4:48, mp3, 2 250 Kb]

Schnittke

Concerto Grosso #1, Rondo (fragment) [3:20, mp3, 1566 Kb]
Soloists:
Lidia Kovalenko, violin
Ilya Ioff, violin
Mikhail Blekher, prepared piano, harpsichord

 

On this website only!

Prelude #10 (Tell My MuZic Out…) [3:07, mp3, 1465 Kb]
The Divertissement String Ensemble,
Synthesizer and drum programming,
all other instruments and sampling: G.Voskoboinik

The Divertissement String Ensemble
and "Northern Flowers" presents

The new CD from the "St.Petersburg Musical Archive"

Tchaikovsky - Souvenir de Florence
Schoenberg - Transfigured Night

Souvenir de Florence
The Sextet is a fusion of the tragic anxiety of Tchaikovsky's last period and his longing for the aura of folk, primarily Italian, music. The first movement is full of tragic emotion, while its tunes originate from passionate Italian instrumental traditionals; the adorable serenade in the second movement is but occasionally interrupted by intrusions of gloomy images of a funeral liturgy; and the poetical melancholy and unity of beat in the third movement are akin to Beethoven's famous Allegretto from the Seventh Symphony, while the finale combines a springy tarantella rhythm, a hefty march-like attitude, and a frenzied folk-dance.

The Souvenir de Florence sextet for two violins, two violas, and two cellos was conceived by Tchaikovsky in the Florence winter and spring of 1890 that are so memorable for Russian music. It was developing at the same time as The Queen of Spades, and became one of the most inspired and perfect creations of the great master.

Tchaikovsky

Souvenir de Florence

Allegro con spirito (fragment) [4:00, mp3, 1876 Kb]

The Transfigured Night sextet,
written in 1899 after Richard Demel's poem "Woman and the World", owes much to the 19th century in its musical language and literary program. Moreover, Transfigured Night is much deeper related to the Romanticism traditions than symphonic works by Richard Strauss written about that same time, or even earlier symphonies of Anton Bruckner.

In the literary source of the Sextet we find typical attributes of the Romantic era: a woman and a man; a moonlit night; delight in the beauty of Nature. The composer followed the contents of the book in every detail, with all deviations from the general sonata allegro pattern attributable to the text. Richard Demel wrote to Schoenberg that he, when listening to Transfigured Night in concert, was trying to track the motives of his text, but soon forgot it enchanted by the music.

Schoenberg

Transfigured Night (fragment) [3:35, mp3, 1683 Kb]

More information about the CD and contact: cheiron@t-online.de