The third CD on ECM of the Russian composer Alexander Knaifel.
Two strikingly different compositions inspirationally linked through the late, great Mstislav Rostropovich:
- Lamento draws on Knaifel’s own experience as a cellist taught by Rostropovich.
- The choral piece Blazhenstva (The Beatitudes). dedicated to Rostropovich, was written as a birthday present for him in 1996.
Knaifel’s music has been described as “one of the most important revelations of recent years” / “sparse, exquisitely refined music” (International Record Review) / “So quiet, so slow-moving, yet so beautiful” (American Record Guide).
Following on from the critically-acclaimed Amicta Sole album (472 0832), Russian composer Alexander Knaifel presents two strikingly different compositions, inspirationally linked through the figure of Mstislav Rostropovich. The late, great Russian cellist was the soloist on Amicta Sole. Knaifel’s background as a cellist is put to good service in the 18-minute Lamento for solo cello (written 1967, revised 1987). The scope of the instrument’s expressive potential is brought into play from the first furious sounds. Ivan Monighetti, who was Rostropovich’s last student at the Moscow Conservatory, rises to the work’s dynamic challenges. In contrast Blazhenstva is a radiant meditation on the Sermon on the Mount, for soloists, orchestra and choir, written as a 70th birthday present for Rostropovich in 1996. Monighetti here has a triple role - as pianist, cellist and conductor, and Knaifel’s wife, Tatiana Melentieva, possessor of a meltingly pure voice, is the soprano soloist as she was on ECM’s first release of premiere recordings of the composer’s music, Svete Tikhiy (4618142).
The St Petersburg-based Alexander Knaifel (born in Tashkent in 1943) belongs to that circle of near-contemporaries and associates from the former Soviet lands which includes Arvo Pärt, Giya Kancheli, Tigran Mansurian, Valentin Silvestrov and Sofia Gubaidulina. He is well-known in Russia as both a serious composer and a composer of film music - he has scored more than 40 feature films. The State Hermitage Orchestra, originally known as the St Petersburg Camerata, was founded in 1989 by Saulius Sondeckis, well-known to ECM listeners for his history-making performance as conductor of Pärt’s Tabula rasa.
