And....we're back

Well, it's the new year and with today being Russian Orthodox Christmas I thought I'd resurrect this blog. In an effort to force myself to write more I'll be limiting the subject matter to things going on in Russia and various ramblings about classical music.

I've really not been paying attention to the Gas War, aside from finding out that in total 12 countries are without a reliable source of gas this January thanks to the impasse between Ukraine and Russia. I do know that the global economic crisis is hitting the Russian economy harder than most countries in the west. The rouble is being rapidly devalued and their stock market has lost about 70% of its value. Other than that, though, I haven't much to offer as I've been mostly occupying myself with trying to find gainful employment in this new year. The campaign I was working on lost - badly - and thus I was not able to continue my career in politics. Probably a good thing considering how inept I was at it and how much I really didn't enjoy the work.

Anyway, what I have been doing is listening to a lot of new music. I've discovered a truly amazing Russian composer. His name is Alexander Tcherepnin. He wrote in the beginning of the 20th century and his compositions were strikingly original. For example, his first symphony (1927) is the first symphonic work to contain a movement scored entirely for unpitched percussion. He invented his own scale, which bares his name, consisting of nine notes. The main body of his works are six piano concertos and four symphonies. I've only one of his recordings (which you can get off iTunes for ten bucks less than in stores) that contains his first piano concerto, a one movement work with an unforgettable quasi-minimalist opening with a distinctive flair of folk melodies from the Caucuses and also his third piano concerto. The third piano concerto is a bit harder to get into than the first, but it reminds me in a lot of ways of how Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony ties together its material: at first it can seem disjointed, but upon a few repeats the different movements are themselves broken down into discrete sections. The effect is the sonic equivalent of a kaleidoscope and is remarkably enjoyable. In addition to the concertos, there are two "fillers", crowd pleasers which also serve as orchestra show off pieces.

I've heard snippets of his other works and what I love most is the synthesis of so many different musical styles: from the Caucuses, China, Japan, Arabic folk songs, and a number of other places I'm probably missing. It never sounds cheap* and the way that he utilizes his influences combined with his own individualistic contributions makes for some truly weird but never uninteresting sounds.

Anyway, his music is really worth exploring if you're a fan of 20th century music. He's criminally underplayed and yet some of his pieces have the potential to be really big attractions to contemporary audiences. I'd love it, for example, if they took Prokofiev's Third piano concerto off of any one of the numerous "Visions of Russia" lineups orchestras put out each seasons and replaced it with Tcherepnin's First concerto (incidentally, you can hear the awesome opening to this concerto when you preview the work in iTunes store)

I get the feeling my descriptions of this sucked, which is why I need to write more. Hopefully some of you are still checking this periodically.

*It's the complete opposite of the type of imperialistic folk-looting that you get in Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. I hate that shit. (not the ballet itself, of course - it's what got me into both classical music and Russia, so...)