Yevgeny Zemtsov: Chamber and Instrumental Music and Arrangements
The Russian composer Yevgeny Zemtsov (1940–2016) may be as well known for the dynasty of musicians – most of them violists – that he fathered than he is for his own music. This first album ever to be devoted to his compositions features works from the beginning and end of his career: a with some early violin works, influenced by Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, a Bartókian string quartet, three spirited and spiky piano miniatures, an oblique piano elegy and five late, enigmatic, almost ritualistic settings of Japanese haikus. Late in life, too, he discovered a fascination with tango, and the album also features his elegant arrangements for string quartet of two Piazzolla favourites.
David Rowland (violin) – Track 4
David Zemtsov (violin) – Track 5
Anna Fedorova (piano) – Tracks 4,8,11
Björn Lehmann (piano) – Track 5
Ekaterina Levental (soprano) – Track 12
Julia Dinerstein (viola) – Track 21
Utrecht String Quartet
Eeva Koskinen (violin)
Katherine Routley (violin)
Mikhail Zemtsov (viola)
Sebastian Koloski (cello)
Listen To This Recording:
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String Quartet (1962, rev. 2004)
- I Lento – Allegro agitato – Lento doloroso –
- II Allegro molto
- III Allegro agitato – Lento aestoso
- Ballada for violin and piano
- I Moderato
- II Lento cantabile
- III Allegro vivo
- No. 1 Fughetta (Allegro)
- No. 2 Intermezzo (Adagio molto capriccioso)
- No. 3 Toccatina (Presto)
- Ohnemass
- No. 1 Kak bezmolven sad (‘How silent is the garden’)
- No. 2 Na goloi vetke voron sidit (‘On the naked branch of a tree sits a raven’)
- No. 3 Sodrognis, o cholm! (‘Shudder, o hill’)
- No. 4 O etot put v glushi (‘O, this path through the undergrowth’)
- No. 5 Vse v lunnom serebre (‘All is filled with silver moonlight’)
- I Verano Porteño
- II Invierno Porteño
- III Primavera Porteña
- IV Otoño Porteño
- Le grand Tango
Ballada for violin and piano (1959, rev. 2015)
Violin Sonata No. 1, in memoriam Sergei Prokofiev (1961, rev. 2001)
Three Inventions for piano (1965, rev. 2005)
Ohnemass for piano (2004)
Five Japanese Poems for soprano, two violins and cello (1985, rev. 2005)
ASTOR PIAZZOLLA
Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas (‘Four Seasons of Buenos Aires’; 1965–69) arr. Yevgeny Zemtsov for string quartet (2003)
Le grand Tango (1982) arr. Yevgeny Zemtsov for solo viola and string quartet (2004)
FIRST RECORDINGS
Fanfare :
‘All in all, the [String quartet] makes quite an impact on the auditor, an impression magnified by the magnificent playing of the Utrecht String Quartet.
In the Ballada, originally written in 1959, tonality remains secure throughout, and the work could almost be an unknown violin and piano work by Sergei Prokofiev, or perhaps even more, Karol Szymanowski, with writing no less inspired than that of either composer. In any case, the piece is nothing short of gorgeous. The following three-movement Violin Sonata No. 1 is written “in memoriam Sergei Prokofiev,” apparently as an overt attempt to imitate the style of Zemtsov’s Russian musical forbear, an attempt that is eminently successful. Indeed, this work could pass as a third sonata by Prokofiev. All of his fingerprints are there: the mercurial shifts of tonal center, the memorable melodic lines, and the occasional passionate outbursts, all combined in a masterful fashion. Only towards the end of the third movement does Zemtsov introduce some chords that his predecessor would never have written, sufficient to convince the listener that this is not Prokofiev after all. […]
I hear nothing but first-class musicianship from each person involved. Mikhail Zemtsov, son of the composer, wrote the informative and personal program notes. The stylistically broad program has something for every musical taste, and if yours are as broad as mine, you’ll thoroughly enjoy every work as much as I did. Add to that the remarkable length (note the timing!) of this disc and it becomes absolutely irresistible.’
—David DeBoor Canfield, Fanfare