Performer: Oleg Timofeyev, John Schneiderman
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Brilliant Classics
Catalogue: 95405
Release: 2016
Size: 1.47 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
01. Sychra: The Poor Branch
02. Sychra: In the Valley
03. Sychra: Troïka
04. Sychra: In the Garden
Sychra: 4 Etudes
05. Etude No. 1
06. Etude No. 2
07. Etude No. 3
08. Etude No. 4
09. Sychra: Variations on Weber’s Last Thought
10. Sychra: Rondo à la Savoyard
11. Aksionov: Kamarinskaia
12. Aksionov: In the Valley
13. Aksionov: Exercise in A Minor
14. Aksionov: I Feel Bad
15. Aksionov: Pour biendans ma chaumière
16. Aksionov: How Did I Upset You?
17. Aksionov: Akh vy seni
18. Aksionov: Mozart Variations
19. Vysotsky: March
20. Vysotsky: Stop Singing, Oh Nature’s Friend
21. Vysotsky: I Love Pear
22. Vetrov: You Won’t Believe
23. Vetrov: Etude in D Major
24. Vetrov: Etude in G Major
25. Vetrov: Etude in A Minor
26. Vetrov: Rondoletto
27. Held: Rondo
28. Held: Polonaise de Mars
Kamensky: Sonata for Violin and 7-String Guitar
29. I. Allegro moderato
30. II. Polish Song with Variations
31. Sychra: Fantasia
Lvov: Sonata
32. I. Allegro moderato
33. II. Rondo. Allegretto
34. anon.: D’un mensonge
35. anon.: On dit que sans espérance
36. anon.: À ma Clémence
37. Sychra: Polonaise
38. Antonolini: Perduta l’arbitra
39. Cimarosa: Se m’abandoni
40. Svientitsky: Variations
41. Svientitsky: Kozak – Air Russe
42. Vysotsky: Fantasia
43. Vysotsky: Not a Peacock
44. Caraway: Troïka
45. Caraway: I Loved Rose
46. Vysotsky: Don’t Be Surprised
47. Vysotsky: Fantasia on the Themes from Cramer’s Études
48. Vysotsky: Remember, My Friend
49. Vysotsky: Bach’s Fugue
50. Vysotsky: Cossack
51. Vysotsky: Rondo
52. Vysotsky: Go Home, Dear Cow
53. Vysotsky: Ukrainian Song
54. Vysotsky: Ogiski’s Polonaise
55. Vysotsky: Ah, Mother, I Have a Headache
56. Vysotsky: Vanyusha
57. Sychra: Polonaise (arr. for 7-string guitar and violin)
58. Glinka: Polonaise
59. Glinka: Kamarinskaya
60. Glinka: Zhizn’ za tsarya (A Life for the Tsar), Op. 4: Potpourri (arr. for 7-string guitar)
61. Oginski: Polonaise in A Major
62. Oginski: Polonaise in F minor
63. Sychra: Variations on Two Songs
64. Rode: Polonaise
65. Alexandrov: My Heart
66. Alexandrov: Graziella
67. Alexandrov: It is Hard for Me
68. Alexandrov: Gallop
69. Alexandrov: Scherzo
70. Alexandrov: L’illusion perdue
71. Alexandrov: An Orphan’s Song
72. Alexandrov: Ballade
73. Alexandrov: Prayer
74. Alexandrov: Melody
75. Alexandrov: Capriccio in B Minor
76. Zimmerman: Capriccio in G Major
77. Zimmerman: Tyrolian Waltz
78. Zimmerman: Waltz
Zimmerman: 2 Marches
79. March No. 1
80. March No. 2
Alexandrov: 3 Exercises
81. No. 1 in G Major: Andante
82. No. 2 in G Major: Allegro moderato
83. No. 3 in G Minor
Alexandrov: 6 Etudes
84. No. 1 in G Major
85. No. 2 in D Major
86. No. 3 in D Minor
87. No. 4 in B Minor
88. No. 5 in C Minor
89. No. 6 in F Minor
90. Sarenko: Romance Without Words
91. Sarenko: Fantasia, “At the Seashore”
92. Sarenko: Etude No. 1
Sarenko: 4 Etudes
93. No. 2 in C Major
94. No. 3 in D Minor
95. Sarenko: Etude No. 4
96. Sarenko: Ukrainian Dance
97. Rossini: Cavatina “Di tanti palpiti”
98. Maslofsky: But Sylvia Is Not Here
99. Held: My Little Dove
100. Maslofsky: To the Hearts
Lhoyer: Sonata for Violin and Guitar
101. I. Moderato
102. II. La chasse
103. Naimanovsky: Variations on “Que le jour me dure”
104. Maslofsky: Forgive Me
105. Morkov: Potpourri of Russian Folksongs
106. Held: To the River
107. Held: The Ray of Hope
108. Giuliani: Polonaise
This comprehensive release is a celebration of the astonishing presence of the guitar in Russia at the beginning of the 19th century. Just the sheer number of composers featured on this 7-CD album exemplifies how popular the instrument was. Though many of these composers have now fallen into obscurity, their works live on – discovered by renowned guitarist Oleg Timofeyev, an expert on the music of this time. Mr Timofeyev is known for reviving the sevenstring Russian guitar, and it is on this instrument that he performs these works, many of which have never been recorded before.
The release starts with one of the masters of the instrument, Andrey Sychra, whose numerous pupils form many of the composers on this album. Sychra was an accomplished harpist, and several of his works seem to imitate the delicacy of the harp. His fine Études are among the first for Russian guitar, and this style would be elaborated on by many of Sychra’s followers, whether they were meant for study or the concert hall. Sychra was also adept at programmatic music, with his compositions after poems able to depict atmospheric scenes, particularly apparent in his works based on Russian folk songs. Other composers, such as Mikhail Vysotsky, preferred to extemporise on themes by well‐known composers; Vysotsky chose Cramer’s Études as a basis for his free-flowing Fantasia, and even arranged the third contrapunctus from J.S. Bach’s Art of Fugue in a remarkably original and novel transcription.
The final CD of this album sees the Russian guitar paired with other instruments – unusual, as Russian guitarists, often in the military or part of land‐owning nobility, rarely had an opportunity to play alongside other musicians. We have Piotr Naimanowsky’s Variations for guitar and fortepiano, a sympathetic working of the popular French air Que le jour me dure, and a Sonata for violin and guitar by Antoine de L’Hoyer, a Frenchman who spent 10 years in Russia and frequently wrote for the Russian guitar.
This innovative release represents an exciting chance to discover the severely neglected world of the Russian guitar during this period. As Oleg Timofeyev and his companions show, there is a wealth of music worthy of attention here, in a variety of genres and styles.