Two concertos
separated by almost a dozen years and the later one half
the length of the first.
Roslavets
belongs with the avant-garde of Russia's 1920s alongside
such luminaries as Lourié and Mossolov. He studied at the
Moscow Conservatoire with Vassilenko and Ippolitov-Ivanov.
In 1927 he celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Revolution
in a concert which included his cantata
October and
Shostakovich’s Second Symphony and Mossolov's
Iron Foundry.
The backlash had to come. Roslavets’ music had continued
its exclusive trajectory finding condemnation with the followers
of socialist realism. He was condemned to ‘the Sticks’ in
Tashkent for some years before a rapprochement and some compromise
took him back to Moscow albeit in musically menial tasks.
The
First
Violin Concerto by the Russian futurist Roslavets is
a big and spiritedly rhapsodic piece. The music proceeds
like a match between Scriabin and pre-Great War Prokofiev.
There is less of the Scriabin orchestral smear but his
incense-heavy ecstatic mood is certainly referenced. There
is something also of Szymanowski's mystical surrealism
too. The Concerto ends with a raging clamorous grating
virtuosity. Ibragimova and Volkov give a performance that
can only be described as possessed. The Concerto is an
epic work that inspired the support of Edison Denisov.
The
Second
Violin Concerto was written shortly after the
Chamber
Symphony and dates from the composer's return to Moscow.
There is less incense now and a more direct speaking manner.
The textures are increasingly transparent and the manner
is more popular but not shallow. The violin line is still
capricious. The piano was a presence in the First Concerto;
it can also be heard here where its voice reminds the listener
of the Korngold concerto. This work smiles romantically
rather like a slightly gritty variant of the Delius Violin
Concerto. The music is quite volatile and is ready to burst
into flames at the flick of a bow. This is a romantic work
with subtle nuances in place but now less Szymanowski than
Korngold. Even that approximation hits a false note for
Roslavets makes use of a rhapsodic singing palette juxtaposed
with dark warnings buried deep in the score. The populist
element reasserts its presence in the finale alongside
a husky viola-accented edging.
Calum Macdonald
provides the fascinating liner-notes and reminds us of Hyperion's
other Roslavets disc which features the
Chamber Symphony and
In
the hours of the new moon - also from the BBC Scottish
Symphony Orchestra and Volkov (CDA67484).
Rob Barnett
Alina Ibragimova
(violin) 
