RUBTSOV Archive

“Russian Oboe Concertos” = By KITKA, RUBTSOV & ESHPAI – MD&G

by Audiophile Audition | Oct 4, 2016 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews

“Russian Oboe Concertos” = VALERY KITKA: Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra No. 1; Concerto for Oboe and String Orchestra No. 3; ANDREY RUBTSOV: Concerto for Oboe and String Orchestra; ANDREY ESHPAI: Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra /Maria Sournatcheva, oboe /Göttinger Sym. Orch./ Christoph-Mathias Mueller ‒ Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm, multichannel SACD MDG 901 1947-6 (and 2+2+2), 72:24 (5/13/16) ****: Accessible concertos from contemporary Russia. The oldest composer on this program, Andrey Eshpai (1925‒2015), was born shortly after the October Revolution, served in the Russian Army in World War II, and studied with Soviet stalwart composers Nicolai Myaskovsky and Aram Khachaturian. However, his Oboe Concerto of 1982 sounds the most contemporary of all the concertos on this disc. It is also, as far as I can recall, the only work by a composer from the Republic of El Mari (part of Russia since the days of the Czars). Bordered on the south by the Volga River, El Mari is situated in the European Plain of Russia. Eshpai’s music draws on the folk music of his birthplace (from which his family moved, to Moscow, when the composer was three). However, being no ethnomusicologist, I can’t say that the folk element in his […]