Zukerman / St Paul Chamber Orchestra - Violin Concertos - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Ivan Sokolov, born in Moscow in 1960, has made his mark both as composer and as pianist. After graduating from Moscow Conservatory in the early 1980s, he taught composition and orchestral score reading there, while also promoting new music in concerts in and around Moscow. Later, in the 1990s, he traveled to various countries in Europe, presenting his and other composers' piano compositions to various types of audiences, at concerts and workshops. His early compositions were avant-gardist, but he eventually rejected radicality in favor of a more traditional musical language, one with it's roots in Tchaikovsky, Glazunov and Rachmaninov, flavored, perhaps, with a hint of Shostakovich. Most of the works here were composed within the last few years and are couched in the unforced lyricism of his latter-day Romanticism. Album Tracks 1. Violin Sonata No. 2 (2018) 2. Reminiscence for Piano, Four Hands (2013) 3. Thirteen Postludes for Viola and Piano (2018) 4. Elegie for Solo Viola (2001) 5.

The first and second Viennese school is the focus of Karim Said's third album for Rubicon. The music spans just over a century, but in that time, two composers who changed the course of music - Beethoven and Schoenberg flourished. Schoenberg's music is no longer 'modern'. It is over 100 years old. It has influences of jazz and the waltz. Just over a century earlier, Beethoven's 3rd Symphony, Eroica pushed the boundaries of the classical symphony to breaking point and ushered in a new age. Beethoven's Eroica Variations can still shock and sound a world away from Mozart and his Vienna. In many ways these variations have an affinity with 20th century piano writing. Schoenberg had turned away from late romanticism and large-scale compositions. His works here are extreme in their brevity and concentration, something his greatest pupil Webern was to develop further in his set of extremely dissonant and terse Variations. Album Tracks 1. Piano Sonata No. 12 in F K. 332~I. Allegro 2. Piano Sonata No. 12 in F K. 332~II. Adagio 3. Piano Sonata No. 12 in F K. 332~III. Allegro assai 4. Pieces (2) for piano, Op. 33~Piano Piece Op. 33a 5. Pieces (2) for piano, Op. 33~Piano Piece Op. 33b 6. Variations for Piano Op. 27~I. Sehr mäßig 7. Variations for Piano Op. 27~II. Sehr schnell 8. Variations for Piano Op. 27~III. Ruhig, fließend 9. Five Piano Pieces Op. 23~I. Sehr langsam 10. Five Piano Pieces Op. 23~II. Sehr rasch 11. Five Piano Pieces Op. 23~III. Langsam 12. Five Piano Pieces Op. 23~IV. Schwungvoll 13. Five Piano Pieces Op. 23~V. Walzer 14. 15 Variations and Fugue in E flat Op. 33 'Eroica'~Introduzione col Basso del Tema. Allegretto vivace 15. 15 Variations and Fugue in E flat Op. 33 'Eroica'~Tema 16. 15 Variations and Fugue in E flat Op. 33 'Eroica'~Var. I 17. 15 Variations and Fugue in E flat Op. 33 'Eroica'~Var. II 18. 15 Variations and F

The music of the Yorkshire-born Arnold Cooke (1906-2005) - inventively contrapuntal, lyrical and energetic in turns - does not deserve the neglect it suffered even in it's composer's lifetime. This second album of two presenting all five of Cooke's string quartets underlines his reputation for resourceful craftsmanship, presented in a style which sits downstream from Hindemith, with whom he studied in Berlin, and from Bartok. There is also a surprisingly strong dance element in all three works heard here, though tempered, even in their lighter moments, by something of the emotional reticence of Britten's quartets. Album Tracks 1. String Quartet No. 4~I. Allegro 2. String Quartet No. 4~II. Scherzo Molto allegro 3. String Quartet No. 4~III. Adagio 4. String Quartet No. 4~IV. Allegro vivace 5. Variations on an Original Theme~Theme Allegretto semplice 6. Variations on an Original Theme~Variation 1 L'istesso tempo - 7. Variations on an Original Theme~Variation 2 Più agitato - 8. Variations on an Original Theme~Variation 3 9. Variations on an Original Theme~Variation 4 Lento e tranquillo 10. Variations on an Original Theme~Variation 5 Vivace 11. Variations on an Original Theme~Variation 6 Canon. Andante 12. Variations on an Original Theme~Variation 7 Scherzo. Allegro molto 13. Variations on an Original Theme~Variation 8 Andante con moto 14. Variations on an Original Theme~Variation 9 Più lento - 15. Variations on an Original Theme~Variation 10 Alla marcia 16. Variations on an Original Theme~Variation 11 Adagio ma non troppo 17. Variations on an Original Theme~Variation 12 Fuga. Allegro 18. String Quartet No. 2~I. Adagio - Allegro moderato 19. String Quartet No. 2~II. Scherzo. Allegro 20. String Quartet No. 2~III. Andante 21. String Quartet No. 2~IV. Molto allegro