Six digital albums featuring music by contemporary composers are available on digital platforms. Published by Melodiya and the Union of Composers of Russia, Sound Review is the first review of contemporary academic music in the history of Russia in the 21st century.
The first two albums of Sound Review are a kind of starting point, presenting works of the first and second waves of the Russian musical avant-garde performed by pianist Mikhail Dubov, including Alexander Mosolov, Arthur Lourié, Edison Denisov, Sofia Gubaidulina, Arvo Pärt, Valentin Silvestrov, and Vladimir Tarnopolsky. The first two albums contain a lot of phonographic rarities that are almost never heard in concerts, while some others have not been earlier released, including the works by the early XX century composers Nikolai Obukhov, Gavriil Popov, Leonid Polovinkin, and our contemporaries, such as Hexagram by Vladimir Martynov, Diptych by Dmitri Smirnov, and Epigraph by Alexander Vustin.
The next four albums feature works by the composers whose music has shaped the sound context of the past twenty years. The composers on Vols. 3 to 6 were born between 1970 and 1990 and began to work actively in the time of perestroika, when the old cultural institutions were disappearing and the new ones were not there.
They are the generation that today defines the scenery of new Russian music. Among them are Dmitri Kourliandski, Vladimir Rannev, Alexei Syumak, Pavel Karmanov, Nastasia Khrushcheva, Kuzma Bodrov, Alexei Sysoyev, Olga Bochikhina, Alexei Nadzharov, Nikolai Khrust, Vladimir Gorlinsky, Nikolai Popov, and Anna Pospelova.
Covering a wide variety of styles and techniques, from minimalism to experimental electronic music, Sound Review is a representative selection of contemporary Russian composers, in which one can discern the leading trends of the age. The geography of the project is quite extensive – in addition to the composers from Moscow and St. Petersburg, the anthology includes chamber works by the composers born in Bryansk, Perm, Nizhny Novgorod, and Ulan-Ude – Alina Podzorova, Mark Buloshnikov, Elmir Nizamov, Anton Svetlichny, Denis Khorov, and Alexander Khubeyev.
The release of the Sound Review anthology is an natural outcome of the effort taken by the Union of Composers of Russia, which today is involved in organizing concerts, festivals, competitions, performing labs, and scientific conferences, and acts as a partner in major projects related to the world of contemporary academic music in Russia. All these activities are not only aimed at supporting the composers, but also at introducing the general public to their works, educating new talents, and promoting professional musical culture in Russia and abroad.
The performers are the musicians of MCME, or Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble, formed in 1990 by composer Yuri Kasparov with the direct participation of Edison Denisov, the leader of the domestic avant-garde. Thanks to the experience and qualifications of the musicians, the ensemble’s arsenal comprises works of various eras, from the Baroque to the present day, unique programs, and exclusive instrumental versions.
All the albums are available on all digital platforms: Yandex.Music, Apple Music, VKontakte, Spotify, YouTube, Deezer, Tidal, etc.
