Russian Futurists

Russian Futurists By Leon Botstein Written for the concert Russian Futurists, performed on Jan 25, 2008 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. The period from the mid-1890s to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, particularly its last years, has been termed the “Silver Age” in the history of Russian art and culture. This was an…

Alexander Mosolov, The Iron Foundry, from the Ballet Steel, Op.19 By Laurel E. Fay Written for the concert Russian Futurists, performed on Jan 25, 2008 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. A graduate of the Moscow Conservatory, Alexander Mosolov (1900-73) was one of the driving forces on Moscow’s new music scene in the 1920s, a…

Dmitri Shostakovich, Incidental Music from The Bed Bug, Op. 19 By Gerard McBurney Written for the concert Russian Futurists, performed on Jan 25, 2008 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Vesevolod Meyerhold (1874-1940) was one of the most important theater directors of the twentieth century. His influence spread in every direction, even beyond Russia. Modern…

Gavriil Nikolayevich Popov, Symphonic Suite No. 1 By Laurel E. Fay Written for the concert Russian Futurists, performed on Jan 25, 2008 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Like his friend Dmitri Shostakovich, Gavriil Popov (1904-72) was a graduate of the Leningrad Conservatory, where he studied composition with Vladimir Shcherbachov. Popov was an early and…

Arthur Lourié, Chant funèbre sur la mort d’un poète By Klara Moricz, Amherst College Written for the concert Russian Futurists, performed on Jan 25, 2008 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Chant funèbre sur la mort d’un poète [Funeral Song on the Death of a Poet] by Arthur Lourié (1891-1966), a setting of Anna Akhmatova’s…

Vladimir Shcherbachov, Symphony No. 2, “Blokovskaya” By David Haas, University of Georgia Written for the concert Russian Futurists, performed on Jan 25, 2008 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. When Shcherbachov’s Second Symphony received its premiere on December 14, 1927, more than a few music critics of Leningrad admitted preferring it to young Shostakovich’s Second…