New album with extraordinary repertoire

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In its latest CD recording of works by Russian composer Grigori Frid, the Georgian Chamber Orchestra Ingolstadt under the direction of Ruben Gazarian continues its commitment to the rediscovery of Soviet and Eastern European composers. With violinist and violist Isabelle Van Keulen and pianist Oliver Triendl, two accomplished musical partners are supporting the GKO and its principal conductor. This new recording was released on August 9, 2019 by the traditional label CAPRICCIO in co-production with Deutschlandfunk Kultur.
 
The Double Concerto for Viola, Piano and String Orchestra, op. 73 from 1981 is juxtaposed with two works from the 1960s: the Symphony No. 3 for String Orchestra and Timpani, op. 50 from 1964 and Two Inventions for String Orchestra, op. 46a from 1962. Despite the two decades that lie between the works, despite the two poles of his oeuvre – the proximity to Shostakovich as well as the environment of the younger generation of composers around Gubaidulina and Schnittke – a uniform personal style is noticeable.
Grigori Frid was a composer, writer and painter. Exposed to massive repressive measures under Stalinism and following his father into exile in Siberia in 1927, he studied first in Irkutsk, then from 1935 at the Moscow Conservatory. One of his formative teachers there was Vissarion Shebalin, an important representative of early Soviet modernism. In addition to his own work, Grigori Frid was committed to helping persecuted colleagues throughout his life. For example, he made possible the premiere performances of ostracized composers such as Sofia Gubaidulina and Alfred Schnittke in the “Music Club,” which he founded in 1965. In the West, he became known primarily for his mono-operas Diary of Anne Frank and Letters of van Gogh.

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