Composer: Nikolai Tcherepnin
Performer: Elena Mindlina, David Witten
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Toccata
Catalogue: TOCC0221
Release: 2014
Size: 290 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Contes de fee, Op. 33
01. No. 1, Morning
02. No. 6, Cat’s House
03. No. 8, Pansies
04. No. 10, Fairy’s Charms
05. No. 11, Fairy’s Breeze
06. No. 15, The Butterfly
4 Melodies, Op. 16
07. No. 1, Thoughts and Waves
08. No. 2, Last Love
09. No. 3, Lake in Tsarskoe Selo
10. No. 4, Twilight
Japanese Lyrics, Op. 52
11. No. 1, Andante
12. No. 2, Molto sostenuto e tranquillo
13. No. 3, Andantino tranquillo, quasi – Andante
14. No. 4, Andantino pensieroso, tranquillo
15. No. 5, Sostenuto assai
16. No. 6, Sostenuto assai, molto tranquillo
17. No. 7, Moderato con moto
4 Songs, Op. 8
18. No. 1, Tears
19. No. 2, Like a Wavering Cloud
20. No. 3, On a Quiet Night
21. No. 4, Spring Solace
A Cycle of Incantations, Op. 53
22. No. 1, To the Earth
23. No. 2, Incantation to the Heart
24. No. 3, Incantation to the Earth Spirit
25. No. 4, Incantation to the Maker of Shadow
26. No. 5, Incantation to Love
27. No. 6, Incantation to Memory
28. No. 7, To the Earth
29. No. 8, Maguey-Agave
Nikolai Tcherepnin (1873–1945) – a student of Rimsky-Korsakov and teacher of Prokofiev – was a Russian-born composer and conductor, and the first of his family’s musical dynasty. This CD provides a conspectus of his ninety-plus songs, which cover a wide range of styles. The early ones are in a late-Romantic idiom; the Japanese Lyrics of 1923 display oriental colours; and the extraordinary Oceanic Suite (1917–23), which sets a series of incantations by the symbolist poet Konstantin Balmont, are modern evocations of primitive ritual.
An earlier Toccata Classics CD of Tcherepnin’s piano music, played by David Witten, was described by James Harrington in the American Record Guide as ‘finely crafted music that is always interesting. I cannot imagine a better, more complete introduction to a relatively unknown composer’.
Elena Mindlina hails from Saratov, Russia. After taking a master’s degree at the Saratov State Conservatoire, in 2006 she came to New York to study musical theatre at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Manhattan and has since appeared on stage in operas (including Boris Godunov), operettas (The Merry Widow) and musicals (South Pacific). Baltimore-born David Witten is Coordinator of Keyboard Studies. at the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University in New Jersey. His international career has included numerous concert tours in China, Finland, Ireland, Mexico, Russia, Ukraine and South America.