Shchedrin: Concertos for Orchestra Nos. 4 and 5 - Khrustal'niye gusli - CD

ENGLISH

<p>The distinguished Russian composer, pianist and teacher Rodion Shchedrin writes: "I spent my childhood in the small Russian town of Aleksin, situated on the river Oka, 300 kilometres south of Moscow. My grandfather was an Orthodox priest there. When I was growing up, purely entertaining, commercial music was not yet as ubiquitous as it is now on television, radio, in stations, sea-ports and shops&hellip;It was still possible to hear choral songs, the sound of the accordion, the strumming of the balalaika, funeral laments, the cries of shepherds at dawn, coming from beyond a river, enveloped in fog. All that distant and now extinct musical atmosphere of a Russian province is strongly etched in my childhood memories. I think, in all three compositions on this CD, it has found it own nostalgic echo." All three works are world première recordings.</p>