The piano music of Tatar-Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina stands somewhat aside from the mainstream of her music, which was heavily influenced by Orthodox spirituality and various musico-mystical devices that flowed from it. This single-disc collection, however, shows that piano music played an important role in Gubaidulina's compositional development, and it includes one utterly delightful work. The album covers Gubaidulina's entire output for the piano, all of which dates from 1974 or before; the bulk of the music is ...
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The piano music of Tatar-Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina stands somewhat aside from the mainstream of her music, which was heavily influenced by Orthodox spirituality and various musico-mystical devices that flowed from it. This single-disc collection, however, shows that piano music played an important role in Gubaidulina's compositional development, and it includes one utterly delightful work. The album covers Gubaidulina's entire output for the piano, all of which dates from 1974 or before; the bulk of the music is from the 1960s. With the Bachian inspiration of the Chaconne, Toccata-Troncata, and Invention (tracks 1, 19, and 20), the music reveals the Shostakovich influence that Gubaidulina has spoken of but that is hard to pin down in her explicitly religious music. The sonata, composed in 1965, uses extended techniques (such as a bamboo-stick glissando executed on the piano's pegs), rough piano analogues of the unusual instrumental combinations that have characterized much of Gubaidulina's...
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