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Friday, March 19, 2021

Alexander Mosolov - Symphony No. 5; Harp Concerto (Arthur Arnold; Taylor Ann Fleshman)


Information

Composer: Alexander Mosolov
  • (01) Symphony No. 5
  • (04) Harp Concerto

Taylor Ann Fleshman, harp
Moscow Symphony Orchestra
Arthur Arnold, conductor

Date: 2020
Label: Naxos

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Review

ARTISTIC QUALITY: 7 / SOUND QUALITY: 8

Talk about one shot wonders! Alexander Mosolov, as an orchestral composer at least, is known for his three-and-a-half minute futurist essay The Iron Foundry. That work dates from 1927, but the composer lived until 1973. After going through the usual Stalinist purges and accusations of formalist heresy, he knuckled under and became a committed Socialist Realist, but perhaps he just wasn’t that talented to begin with. The Fifth Symphony (1965) contains three movements of melodically uninteresting, plodding pseudo-heroism. I found its thirty-one minutes to be almost interminable in their lack of contrast and tepid expressive differentiation, but you may look at it more indulgently. Certainly the music falls easily on the ear.

The Harp Concerto is a big improvement, and not just because I happen to be sucker for harp concertos generally. Inspired by the similar work of Mosolov’s teacher, Glière, the work is attractively written for the soloist, and far more contrasted in tone and atmosphere than the symphony. It’s an ambitious piece: four movements lasting thirty-seven minutes, but as played here by soloist Taylor Ann Fleshman, the time passes by pleasantly enough. Truth to tell, both works sound very good as performed by the Moscow Symphony under Arthur Arnold, and for anyone curious about the minor highways and byways of Soviet-era music, this disc will likely prove a mandatory acquisition. Just don’t let the fun and games of The Iron Foundry lead you to expect more than the circumstances of the time permitted composers of limited ability like Mosolov.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday


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Alexander Mosolov (11 August [O.S. 29 July] 1900 – 11 July 1973) was a composer of the early Soviet era, known best for his early futurist piano sonatas, orchestral episodes, and vocal music. Mosolov studied at the Moscow Conservatory and achieved his greatest fame in the Soviet Union and around the world for his 1926 composition, Iron Foundry. Later conflicts with Soviet authorities led to his expulsion from the Composers' Union in 1936 and imprisonment in the Gulag in 1937. His later music conformed to the Soviet aesthetic to a much greater degree, but he never regained the success of his early career.

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Arthur Arnold (born 5 April 1967 in Naarden) is a Dutch orchestra conductor.

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Taylor Ann Fleshman (born in Kernersville, North Carolina) is an American harpist who is currently based in New York.

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