Aleksandr Nikolsky News
Soviet composer (1874-1943)
Commemorations 2024 (Birth: Aleksandr Nikolsky)
- Soviet Union
- composer, music teacher
Last update
2024-04-24
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2016-07-14 16:45:07
Moscow Patriarch Choir/Tolkachev (Christophorus) Sacred Chants after the Revolution 1917 is the subtitle of this sumptuous collection, and the notes describe the “acts of heroism” that the five composers went through to keep Russia’s mighty choral tradition alive in Soviet times while churches were being razed and clergymen murdered. Just how “hidden” these composers were is intriguing: Alexander Nikolsky was made responsible for “proletarian culture” after the revolution and Alexander Alexandrov was such a personal favourite of Stalin that the dictator would call up in the middle of the night requesting choirs to sing his favourite tunes. Also featured on the disc are hymns by Golovanov, Chesnokov and Kastalsky, all of whose music is miles off anything challenging enough to be denounced by the regime as “muddle instead of music” (as Shostakovich’s was). Instead, the harmonic language is rousing, fragrant pre-revolution romanticism, and the Moscow choir under Ivan Tokachev sings […]
2014-02-04 03:38:50
Modest Mussorgysky's “Night on Bald Mountain” – the original Black Sabbath
Although written nearly 150 years ago, Modest Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain” feels incredibly modern. Mussorgsky composed the piece – about a witches’ Sabbath and Satan worship on St. John’s Eve – over 12 sleepless days in 1860, finishing on St. John’s Eve itself. In a letter to Vladimir Nikolsky, he said of the work: “[I]t seethed within me so, and I simply didn’t know what was happening within me… I see in my wicked prank an independent Russian product, free from German profundity and routine… grown on our native fields and nurtured on Russian bread.” The work is based on a short story, St. John’s Eve by Nikolai Gogol . St. John’s Day (June 24th) was originally a pagan celebration of the summer solstice. Like many pagan holidays, it was incorporated into the Christian calendar, and now marks the birth of John the Baptist. St. John’s […]
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Prima la musica
2013-01-29 05:02:17
Khovanshchina
[…] writing an opera about her: she's definitely fascinating enough to carry one. Of the names I didn't know, I was especially taken by bass Orlin Anastassov (Dosifei) and baritone Sergey Muzaev (Chakloviti), both of whom sang so fantastically well that even I forgot to mourn the relative dearth of sopranos. Vladimir Galouzine was unflagging, too, as Prince Andrei, even if his wig did make him look like 17th century Russia's answer to Bill Bailey. Gleb Nikolsky, meanwhile, looked every inch the part as Prince Ivan Khovanskhi: bearded, swaggering and apparently about nine feet tall. Mussorgsky's score was as swirly and stormy and full of eerie choruses as I expect my Russian opera to be – thanks for your help there, Shostakovich, and yours too, Maestro Jurowski (the elder) – and matched pretty well by Andrei Serban's production, with its menacing slabs of concrete and bleak backdrops brightened only by […]
2012-10-26 01:00:00
Sergei Prokofiev - Piano Sonatas
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