#ClassicsaDay #SovietaDay Week 5
By Ralph Graves
For the third year running, the Classics a Day team chose to honor May Day. For the month of May, Soviet musicians are the theme. Last year I posted music by Soviet prize-winners.
This time, I’m simply walking my way through the alphabet (Latin, not Cyrillic). The music I discovered proved anything but ordinary. Here are my posts for the fifth and final week of #SovietaDay.
5/27/19 Galina Ustvolskaya (1919-2006) – Piano Concerto
Despite support from her teacher, Shostakovich, her modernist music was seldom performed during the Soviet Era.
5/28/19 Sergei Vasilenko (1872-1956) – In Spring Suite for flute and small orchestra
Vasilenko was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for his services to music, both as a composer and teacher.
5/29/30 Yuri Yukechev (1947 – ) – Two pieces for viola d’amore
Yukechev survived the Soviet Era and writes in an expansive, experimental fashion that would never have been allowed in the USSR.
5/30/19 Valery Zhelobinsky (1913-1946) – Three Pieces for Piano, Op. 27, No. 2 Song
The short-lived pianist and composer left an impressive body of work, including four operas, three piano concerts, and six symphonies. The bulk of his music is for solo piano.
5/31/19 Iosif Andriasov (1933-200) – String Quartet Op. 1
This 1954 student work was dedicated to Andriasov’s sister and remains one of his most popular composition.
