N. Y. Myaskovsky: Russian Master Composer...
Sébastien Melmoth | Hôtel d'Alsace, PARIS | 11/04/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
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N. Y. Myaskovsky (1881-1950) is yet another unfortunately forgotten eastern-European [read, Russian] composer. There are probably at least two reasons for this: (1) he served Russia during the period of change [1917-50], therefore "cold war" propaganda would have denigrated him; and (2) he didn't travel to the West like Stravinsky, Prokofiev Prokofiev: String Quartets 1 & 2; Quintet , and Shostakovich.
Myaskovsky was a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory school of Rimsky-Korsakov Rimsky-Korsakov: Works for String Quartet , Lyadov, and Glière Reinhold Glier: String Quartets , while his epic-lyricism is in the line of the Great Five (Borodin Dvorák, Tchaikovsky, Borodin: Quartets , Balakirev Balakirev: Piano Music (Complete) [Box Set] , et alii).
In WW1 he was a combat officer in the Russian Army on the Austrian front where he faced barrages from super-heavy guns like the smooth-firing Czech-built Skoda 30.5cm howitzer which could lob ~1-ton shell The guns, 1914-18 (Ballantine's illustrated history of the violent century. Weapons book) .
After the war, Myaskovsky assumed Taneyev's old position as professor of composition at the Moscow Conservatory where his pupils included Khachaturian, Shebalin, Kabalevsky, and Boris Tchaikovsky. His great oeuvre includes 27 symphonies and 13 string quartets.
How to relate these string Quartets by Myaskovsky? They sound vaguely Schoenbergian without being 12-tone (cf. Schoenberg's Op. 10 String Quartet in f#-minor); actually they sound more Bergian in their lyrical pantonality (cf. Berg's "Op. 3" String Quartet and the Lyric Suite). Nothing overtly "Russian" or "folkish" in these Modernisitc eastern-European works.
Myaskovsky certainly has a real handle on the medium of the string quartet: superior part writing, interesting articulation, etc.
The Quartets are all in minor keys (a, c, and d). Nos. 1 & 2 were composed in 1930; No. 3 is an earlier work (1911), revised in 1926. The minor-key tonalities of course give the works a more serious and marginally lugubrious ambience, but they're not excessively pathétique: they are exercises in the real Art of string quartet writing. Anyone interested in the expressive genre of the string quartet would doubless find these pieces a valuable addition to their collection.
Russian label Northern Flowers, 2007.
Russian Taneyev Quartet recorded in St. Petersburg, 1983.
Vivid Fauvist cover-art, satisfactory.
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Finally! Out of Obscurity
Hong Kong Phooey | North Carolina | 11/13/2007
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Myaskovsky, a composer of substantial talent, was best known for his 27 symphonies. His string quartets were second tier in color and composition, but thankfully, Northern Flowers is slowly releasing them for westerners to judge for themselves.
The 3 quartets on this CD are his Opus 33, circa late twenties and early thirties. Their texture and sound are reminiscent of Shostakovich, with a brighter, somewhat optimistic tone.
A note about the recordings by the wonderful Taneyev Quartet. Although it is a marvelous readings of the compositions, the recording itself is not all digital, but rather AAD. Hence my rating of 3 stars: 4 stars for the quartets, 2 stars for the recording, which sounds at times as if the musicians are playing inside a barn!
However, this should not discourage the curious from purchasing and enjoying. Please release volume 2 soon."
Track Listings (9) - Disc #1