Firsova (The) Mandelstam Cantatas
Dedicated performances illuminate works close to this Russian’s heart
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Elena Firsova
Genre:
Vocal
Label: Megadisc
Magazine Review Date: 3/2005
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 59
Mastering:
Stereo
Catalogue Number: MDC7816
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Forest Walks |
Elena Firsova, Composer
Ekaterina Kichigina, Soprano Elena Firsova, Composer Igor Dronov, Conductor Studio for New Music |
Earthly Life |
Elena Firsova, Composer
Ekaterina Kichigina, Soprano Elena Firsova, Composer Igor Dronov, Conductor Studio for New Music |
Before the Thunderstorm |
Elena Firsova, Composer
Ekaterina Kichigina, Soprano Elena Firsova, Composer Igor Dronov, Conductor Studio for New Music |
Author: David Fanning
Elena Firsova declares her settings of Osip Mandelstam to be her most important works, and this selection of three of her seven cantatas, composed between 1984 and 1994, bears her out. Most of the texts take the form of highly concentrated, private, anguished meditations, something like extended haikus, and Firsova’s free-flowing, emancipated musical language fits them like a glove. Her harmony commutes between shades of atonality and (especially in Before the Thunderstorm) tonality, and her instrumental writing, derived ultimately from Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, has affinities with her one-time teacher Edison Denisov but also with the likes of György Kurtág or, to take a Russian example from the previous generation, Alexander Lokshin.
The performances by the Studio for New Music – formed in 1993 mainly from graduate students at the Moscow Conservatoire – are dedicated and beautifully sustained. The same goes for Ekaterina Kichigina’s singing, although there is no disguising the fact that she has difficulty negotiating some of the high-register writing. Recording quality is warm and atmospheric, and texts are supplied in Cyrillic and English translation.
The performances by the Studio for New Music – formed in 1993 mainly from graduate students at the Moscow Conservatoire – are dedicated and beautifully sustained. The same goes for Ekaterina Kichigina’s singing, although there is no disguising the fact that she has difficulty negotiating some of the high-register writing. Recording quality is warm and atmospheric, and texts are supplied in Cyrillic and English translation.
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