Moscow City Symphony Orchestra [Russian Phil] & Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble, Alexei Vinogradov & Oleg Khudyakov
CD
$18.00
Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days.
Beside his preference for instrumental theatre, it is especially the principle of writing 'unique' pieces that defines the workof Russian composer Viktor Ekimovsky. Each work must embody a new and original structural idea as well as employ technical and stylistic expressive means that have not appeared in any earlier compositions. The works on this CD represent the entire spectrum of Ekimovsky's musical ideas.
A key work is "Symphonic Dances". The underlying literary programme evokes the vision of an endless dance marathon, and because of the apocalyptic reference the work appears like a 'danse macabre'. Two works for percussion were written especially for the 6 members of the Pekarsky Percussion Ensemble: "The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin" is a minimalist meditation in which Ekimovsky consciously avoids the loud and rhythmic playing that is typical of percussion instruments. His "27 Destructions" are ruled by the principle of 'destruction' which is realised by the change of rhythm, texture, melody, dynamics, tempo and instrumental colour at the junctures of the 27 different miniatures.
"The Mirror of Avicenna" is based on a common cultural archetype, the movement "From Darkness to Light". Ekimovsky who dedicated this work to himself based his work on words of the philosopher and healer Avicenna. Ekimovsky wrote the violin concerto "Attalea princeps" after reading the eponymous story by Vsevolod Garshin who had expressed his feelings of being trapped in a brutal environment.
21st October 2011
***
“Ekimovsky believes that each new work should be new in every respect, rather than reflect linear developments in a composer's method. Hence there is no Ekimovsky "style" as such, which makes this collection of five pieces a wild ride, switching from the brittle, Partchian percussion of "27 Destructions" to the creative ferment of "The Mirror of Avicenna".”
The Irish Times
2nd December 2011
****
“Ekimovsky’s The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin (1989), for percussion ensemble, is almost tentatively soft, the delicately chiming sounds reminiscent of the world of American experimentalist Harry Partch. His Symphonic Dances (1993), with solo piano embedded rather than standing out, are a seething mass, as if the dissonant extremes of Edgard Varèse had been stirred and swirled and darkened.”
