Vyacheslav ARTYOMOV (b.1940)
In Memoriam [20:35]
Lamentations [12:43]
Pietà [21:27]
Tristia [16:40]
Oleh Krysa (violin)
Oleg Yanchenko (organ)
Aleksander Rudin (cello)
Stanislav Bunin (piano)
Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Moscow State Philharmonic/Dmitri
Kitaenko
Moscow Chamber Orchestra “Musica Viva”/Murad Annamamedov
USSR State Symphony Orchestra/Timur Minbayev
rec. 1986-94, The House of Soundrecording, Moscow
DIVINE ART DDA25175 [71:28]
The excellent booklet that accompanies this CD is in three sections: Introduction, The Music (by Robert Matthew-Walker) and The Composer. The last of these explains the hostile attitude of the authorities towards Artyomov, until the thawing of the icy grip of the Soviet State in 1995 at last permitted artistic freedom of expression. As late as 1979 he was blacklisted by the Sixth Congress of the Union of Soviet Composers, just because some of his works were beginning to be performed in Western festivals.
If there is ever any question of our politicians interfering in artistic freedom, the experiences of Soviet composers must stand as a potent warning.
The booklet opines that it was Artyomov’s strong Christian faith that gave him the courage and fortitude to persevere down his artistic path. In fact, it was a performance of his Requiem in 1988 that earned the approval of the notorious Tikon Khrennikov, and which signalled his readmittance to the pantheon of Soviet ‘Greats’.
The works on this CD are presented as deriving from his religious belief. The first, and earliest work, presented here is In Memoriam, which started life in 1968 as a post-graduate violin concerto. It was subsequently withdrawn and was recomposed in 1984 as his second symphony, the first of a cycle of symphonies, each with a solo instrument appearing almost as a Sinfonia Concertante. In Memoriam is dedicated to the composer’s mother, and the solo violin weaves its way through the orchestral conglomeration, and so becomes an integral part of it. In two movements Adagio and Allegro, it sounds to me as though the composer’s influences range from Shostakovitch (in brooding mode) through Stravinsky, Varese and even Berg. It doesn’t strike me as being particularly original, perhaps representing an all-purpose neo-tonal modernism of its time. The music is intense in the extreme, varying from a dark orchestral agglutination with the violin, to violent percussive outbursts, and the up-front recording emphasizes this fact.
It would seem that Artyomov’s most significant large-scale work is his Requiem, and the next work on the CD is his Lamentations, which is an arrangement of three initial episodes from it, for organ, percussion, piano and string orchestra.
The booklet tells us that Artyomov transcribed the choral passages for organ, percussion and string orchestra with an optional piano. I have never heard his Requiem, but I can easily imagine a chorus singing the falling string textures in all three movements and being accompanied / interrupted by the organ and percussion – strikingly, bells. I should think that it would be extremely effective, as indeed is the transcription in representing lamentation, which can reinforce or beget faith. I found this music to have a more personal stamp than In Memoriam.
It is followed by Pietà, a twenty-one-minute cello concerto dating, in its revised form, from 1996. It depicts the Virgin Mary holding the body of her dead son. As one would expect, Artyomov’s music is strong on lamentation, and as far as I can tell appears to be in five sections. From the development of the music, I interpret them as follows. It begins with an initial quiet lament, as the Virgin holds Jesus’ body. A quarter of the way through, the pulse increases in a section of increasing intensity, featuring repeated glissandi for the orchestra, perhaps representing a more visible level of distress in Mary and the friends accompanying her. Half way through, a short, more quiet section, as Mary calms somewhat. That ends with brief violent chords which constitute an introduction to a long cadenza for the soloist, perhaps representing a lament by Mary. Finally, a section prefaced by high violins, which slowly descends into silence, accompanied by pizzicato chords capped by the quiet ringing of bells.
The work is impressive in its impact, and I just wish that the melodic line was a bit more memorable. Once again, the recording is somewhat ‘in your face’, with the opening cello chords emanating as if from a gigantic instrument.
Finally, we have Tristia I, for solo piano, strings, trumpet and vibraphone. Like the other works on the CD, it represents a state of mind which can hardly be described as happy, and so we have music that corresponds. In this instance it has been inspired by a poem written by the composer’s wife Valeriya Lyubetskaya. The work begins with nearly two minutes of slow orchestral keening, underpinned by low organ timbres, which is then joined by the piano playing (apparently) random chords, followed by a lamenting trumpet. The booklet notes explain that these two instruments play in a rhythm independent of the strings. To my ears this yields music that at times sounds almost aleatoric. At nearly seventeen minutes, I found it to be the most difficult of all the works on the CD.
To conclude, the music is, at times, challenging, and will probably only reveal its secrets to those prepared to commit to concentrated repeat listening. In particular, the last piece makes significant demands upon the listener. The recordings are vivid, if somewhat up-front. The CD is presented in the usual plastic case with a superb booklet that has colour photographs and extremely informative essays in English and Russian.
Jim Westhead
