The way this Northern Flowers issue -- 1941-1945 Wartime Music Vol. 2 -- is packaged, one would think it a collection of music from World War II. But it is actually a volume within an ongoing series of discs chronicling works of Russian composers written during the Second World War. The subject in this instance is Vladimir Shcherbachov (1887-1952) -- here called "Scherbachov" -- a near-contemporary of Prokofiev who remains practically unknown in the West. Perhaps only one of his works -- his Nonet for voice, piano, flute, ...
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The way this Northern Flowers issue -- 1941-1945 Wartime Music Vol. 2 -- is packaged, one would think it a collection of music from World War II. But it is actually a volume within an ongoing series of discs chronicling works of Russian composers written during the Second World War. The subject in this instance is Vladimir Shcherbachov (1887-1952) -- here called "Scherbachov" -- a near-contemporary of Prokofiev who remains practically unknown in the West. Perhaps only one of his works -- his Nonet for voice, piano, flute, harp, string quartet, and dancer (1919) -- has ever circulated on recordings outside Europe. Shcherbachov was a major mover during the prime years of Russian Futurism as a teacher, organizer, and as the central advocate for modern music in St. Petersburg; young composers clustered around him as he fearlessly took on authorities in defense of new trends in music. Shcherbachov was also a reformer in education, submitted changes in compositional disciplines that were widely accepted and...
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