Mitrofan Belyayev, a successful timber dealer, was a patron of the arts and amateur violist who became interested in the music of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and, through him, that of many of his students. The so-called Belyayev Circle involved Friday-night musicales at the businessman's home as well as support for larger concert and publication projects. This release of piano trio and piano solo music associated with Belyayev doesn't really attempt to capture anything definitive about his influence; it covers only four of the ...
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Mitrofan Belyayev, a successful timber dealer, was a patron of the arts and amateur violist who became interested in the music of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and, through him, that of many of his students. The so-called Belyayev Circle involved Friday-night musicales at the businessman's home as well as support for larger concert and publication projects. This release of piano trio and piano solo music associated with Belyayev doesn't really attempt to capture anything definitive about his influence; it covers only four of the perhaps dozen composers involved, and chamber music for most of them was not a characteristic genre. Indeed, the largest work on the program, Rimsky-Korsakov's Piano Trio in C minor, is one of the composer's most Western-oriented pieces; it lands about halfway between Mendelssohn and Brahms. All this said, even if you just regard the program as a look at one aspect of Rimsky-Korsakov and his students (Glazunov, Lyadov, and the little-known Felix Blumenfeld), this is an enjoyable...
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