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4.0 out of 5 stars
Darkly dissonant and very rewarding music, August 19, 2010
This review is from: Alexander Lokshin: Symphony No. 4; Three Scenes from Goethe's Faust (Audio CD)
Before BIS launched their cycle of Lokshin's (1920-1987) orchestral works and symphonies, I bet that few people were even aware of the name. Yet Shostakovich and Schnittke both hailed him as a genius, or at least a truly great composer. He was, however, in constant trouble with the regime during his formative years, and didn't embark on his symphonic cycle until 1957. He completed 11 of them in total, all of which apart from the fourth featured here have vocal parts.
The concise, powerful and relatively callous fourth was written in 1968. Stylistically it is a seamlessly unified prelude, variations and finale, in which the darkly dissonant language only intermittently gives way to anything softer and more reflective. Still, it is an imaginative, hauntingly inventive work with an epic sweep (despite its relatively short duration of 16.41) which should appeal to any fan of Schnittke or Tishchenko, even though it doesn't in any way really sound like either composer.
Lokshin sometimes referred to the Three Faust Scenes as his twelfth symphony. Composed in 1980, this song cycle is in fact more easily accessible than the symphony; it is still dissonant but not as relentlessly so as the symphony, and much more melodic. Ranging from the hazily dreamlike to the dramatically operatic, it is another work well worth getting to know. The performances are, as far as I can discern, excellent and the sound quality very good; in sum, this is a rewarding release, recommended with some enthusiasm to anyone with a taste for exploration.
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