Shostakovich's Circle / Autour de Chostakovitch

German Germanovich Galynin (Composer), Dmitry Shostakovich (Composer), Galina Ustvolskaya (Composer), Yuli Turovsky (Conductor), I Musici de Montréal (Orchestra), Serhiy Salov (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Serhiy Salov
• Orchestra: I Musici de Montréal
• Conductor: Yuli Turovsky
• Composer: German Germanovich Galynin, Dmitry Shostakovich, Galina Ustvolskaya
• Audio CD (April 6, 2007)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Analekta
• ASIN: B000E0VO10
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #139,866 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Allegro

2. Andante

3. Allegro Vivo

4. Allegretto

5. Moderato Con Moto

6. Allegro Non Troppo

7. Adagio

8. Moderato

9. Piano Concerto

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist

I Musici de Montréal Chamber Orchestra

Founded in 1983 by cellist and conductor Yuli Turovsky, I Musici de Montréal is a chamber orchestra of 15 musicians that presents a vast repertoire extending from the baroque to the contemporary. The orchestra presents a busy schedule of over 100 concerts per season throughout the world including three prestigious series in Montreal. This extraordinary amount of activity places I Musici amongst the most important touring orchestras in Canada. Since its beginnings, I Musici has, to date, released 44 CDs that are distributed in more than 50 countries around the world. These recordings have won the orchestra and Maestro Turovsky many awards. The Orchestra has received the coveted Diapason d'or for its recording of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 14, and was presented with a Rosette from Penguin Guide to Compact Discs and Cassettes in 1992 for its recording of Handel's Concerti grossi, Opus 6 - which is now considered a benchmark.

Yuli Turovsky Conductor

Born in Moscow, Yuli Turovsky's musical awakening began early on. By the age of 7, he was seriously invested in the study of the cello. He entered the celebrated Tchaikovsky Conservatory where he had the honor to study with the celebrated Galina Kozulupova and in 1969 received First Prize in the USSR Cello Competition. The following year he was among the laureates of the 22nd Prague Spring International Competition. His studies completed, he began the first of many tours around the world as a member of the celebrated Moscow Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Rudolph Barchai. After immigrating to Canada and establishing himself in Montreal, Yuli Turovsky carried on his brilliant musical career as a soloist, as a member of the Turovsky Duo with his wife Eleonora and as a founding member of the Borodine Trio. Created in 1977, he remained with his trio until 1993. The quality of his performances have made him an audience favourite. The symphony orchestras of Detroit, Montreal, Chicago, Athens, Jerusalem and Stockholm have welcomed him as a soloist and he continues to be a recording artist, counting more than 80 CDs. In spite of his formidable schedule, Yuli Turovsky continues to teach at the Faculté de musique of l'Université de Montréal where he has formed a generation of cellists. 2002 marked the 25th anniversary of musical life for Yuli Turovsky in Canada: a quarter of a century of remarkable creativity that constitutes a special heritage and a unique source of inspiration.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two Discoveries, Plus an Old Friend in New Guise, May 9, 2006

By 

J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shostakovich's Circle / Autour de Chostakovitch (Audio CD)

Yuli Turovsky, the founder and director of I Musici de Montreal, must be credited with bringing out this marvelous new CD of music by Shostakovich and two of his close colleagues, German Galinin and Galina Ustvolskaya in works that were all written in 1946 in immediately post-war Russia. An old friend in new garb is Shostakovich's Third String Quartet, in F, Op. 73, as orchestrated for string orchestra, winds and harp by Rudolf Barshai, given opus number 73a. It is given a fresh, invigorating performance by Turovsky and his band. (This is not to be confused with Barshai's more familiar orchestration of the Eighth Quartet, which is also called a Chamber Symphony, designated Op. 110a.)

As well, we are happy to have the Piano Concerto by Galina Ustvolskaya, one-time student of Shostakovich (whom he asked to marry him early in the 1940s; she chose not to). This is an early work and is not entirely typical of her later style which tends to be hard-edged and percussive (one Dutch wit called her 'The Woman with a Hammer'). It is in one movement, but divided into several discernible sections, and lasts about seventeen minutes. It is by far the most 'romantic' of her compositions, and is more or less in C major/minor.

The most amazing and immediately appealing of the works here is the First Piano Concerto by German (or Herman) Germanovich Galinin (sometimes transliterated as Galynin, accent on the second syllable), an almost completely unknown Russian composer who also was a student of Shostakovich's. Indeed, this concerto reminds one of Shostakovich's own First Concerto with its brashness, fresh high spirits underpinned by a shy melancholy (especially in the long second movement). The rondo finale dispels earlier sadness and finishes in a blaze of pyrotechnics. Entirely tonal, brilliantly orchestrated, this concerto, receiving its first recording outside Russia, is a triumph and I can easily imagine it being taken up by pianists looking for new material; I am thrilled to have made its acquaintance.

The pianist in the two concerti is the very young Ukrainian, Sergei Salov (his first name is transliterated as 'Serhiy' in the Analekta booklet notes, but I notice that when he played this concerto with I Musici de Montreal in a concert last year their press release referred to him by the more familiar 'Sergei'). He is a very fine pianist whose fingerwork is pristine and his ability to mold a phrase preternaturally musical.

I would recommend this CD for the Galinin concerto alone, but both the Ustvolskaya concerto and the Shostakovich chamber symphony are given exceptional performances. Sound is excellent.

Scott Morrison