Yuri Bashmet and the Moscow Soloists Chamber Orchestra

Of Antonio Vivaldi’s roughly five hundred and fifty works, his Four Seasons cycle of four concerti is a true record-breaker in terms of popularity. This was the case from the work’s very appearance. The sheet music had barely been printed in 1725 in Amsterdam – then the capital of music publishing – before it had been judged by all of enlightened Europe and become a hit of the “Spiritual Concerts” in Paris. Here the most important role was played by the poetic programme. Initially the Four Seasons were published as part of the cycle of 12 Concerti, Op. 8, entitled Cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione. Moreover, Vivaldi prefaced each of these four concerti (which opened the Cimento dell’armonia...) with a sonnet that depicted the content of the music. Who the author of these sonnets was remains unknown. Possibly it was the composer himself when writing poetic lines in his native language. The poetic motifs are traditional (the springtime awakening of nature is associated with the pastorale and autumn with hunting), but their bewitching naivety was delightedly accepted by intellectuals too, among them Jean-Jacques Rousseau. And, who knows, perhaps it was Vivaldi’s concerti that motivated the young Scot James Thomson (the author of the anthem Rule Britannia) to write his most important work in 1726 – the poem The Seasons, which has been adoringly read by lovers of philosophical poetry.

Franz Schubert was the only one of the famed Viennese composers who was both born and died in the Austrian capital. From his very childhood he was raised in a typically Viennese atmosphere of music salons and soirees. This is most reflected in his songs and his symphonies.
The first six symphonies were written by the young composer for the amateur orchestra that had emerged from the Schuberts’ family quartet. These musical assemblies initially took place at the home of Schubert-Vater. Later, as the ensemble grew, they moved to larger premises, including those of the merchant Franz Frischling and the violinist Otto Hatwig who became the leader of the ensemble. By the time Schubert had composed his Fifth Symphony in B Flat Major there were around thirty people in the orchestra and the composer himself regularly featured with them as a violist.
The Symphony for Chamber Orchestra without clarinets, trumpets and kettle drums was completed on 3 October 1816, when Schubert was not yet twenty years of age. It was composed in the spirit of Haydn and Mozart and stands apart for its classical harmoniousness and its lightness of hand. This music was written as if without serious intentions – purely for the enjoyment of amateur musicians.
Anna Bulycheva

Giya Kancheli – is one of the greatest composers of our time. He has written music for more than fifty films, established his own musical style and his own kind of symphonism. One of the most dazzling features of Kancheli’s style can be conveyed using the expression “dynamic statics”, which was first used in music circles by Igor Stravinsky. Kancheli’s statics may be associated with the surface waters of a deep lake that – only at first glance – seems absolutely still, or with a black and white photograph – an instant seized and captured forever.
Kancheli’s chamber work Abii ne viderem was written in the composer’s first years in the West. Some music researchers believe that this work is connected with the tragic events in Georgia in the early 90s. Kancheli himself, however, states that it was his wish to write music “as the case arose”.
Here the conflict develops as if in the internal framework of the human soul, and this makes the whole no less tense. In one episode a remark even recommends that the conductor make a few pauses in order to achieve the most serene and peaceful atmosphere. The confusion and the explosive energy together with the immobility of loneliness – all of this demands extreme sacrifice, both from the performers and the listeners.
Svetlana Nikitina