Myaskovsky - Sonat for Violin & Piano 70 [CD]

The three violin sonatas on this release are by composers who had enjoyed a direct professional relationship during the period between the two world wars, mainly through their involvement on the teaching staff at the Moscow Conservatoire. Despite being on of Nikolai Myaskovsky's most appealing and approachable later works, his Violin Sonata op. 70 remains rarely performed in concert. The work begins with a wistful first movement, followed by the final movement containing a series of 12 Variations on a theme eloquent and restrained by turns. The following work is by a student, colleague and friend of Myaskovsky, Vassarion Shebalin. Formed in the classically arrayed four-movement design, it shows the composer's musical language at it's clearest and most direct. The final work on this album is by the composer Vasily Nechayev who is hardly known outside of Soviet music circles. His Sonata Op. 12 shows Nechayev was aware of stylistic developments pursued by Bartok and Prokofiev in it's richly whole-tone harmonies and it's motoric rhythms. Sasha Rozhdestvensky and Viktoria Postnikova are a mother and son partnership who form part of a famous Russian music family. These are premiere recordings.