Grigori Frid - Double Concerto; Symphony No. 3 (Various Artists)

Information

Composer: Grigori Frid

• (01) Concerto for viola, piano and string orchestra, Op. 73
• (04) Symphony No. 3 for string orchestra and timpanis, Op. 50
• (07) Two Inventions for string orchestra, Op. 46a

Isabelle van Keulen, violin

Oliver Triendl, piano

Georgisches Kammerorchester Ingolstadt

Ruben Gazarian, conductor

Date: 2019

Label: Capriccio

http://capriccio.at/grigori-frid-1915-2012

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Review

Born into a Jewish family in Petrograd (now St Petersburg) in 1915, Grigory Frid studied music at the Moscow Conservatory, where he later became professor of music, and worked as a painter and writer as well as a composer. In 1965 he founded the Moscow Youth Music Club, promoting the output of a younger generation of composers including Denisov, Gubaidulina and Schnittke, his involvement with the organisation continuing until his death in 2012. Frid’s extensive output as a composer included orchestral, chamber, vocal and film music as well as the operas The Diary of Anne Frank (1969) and The Letters of Van Gogh (1975).

The Symphony No 3 for string orchestra and timpani, Frid’s final work in this form, was completed in 1964 and premiered by Svetlanov the following year. Comprising two brisk outer movements framing a poignant and sombre slow movement, the work invites comparisons with Honegger’s Second Symphony from 1942, although Frid’s conclusion involves a slow fade to silence as opposed to the buoyant close of the earlier piece.

The Two Inventions for string orchestra are orchestrations of two of Frid’s 19 Inventions for piano. Contemporary with the Third Symphony, they share much of the seriousness of that work without quite matching its poetry and eloquence.

The Concerto for viola, piano and string orchestra of 1981 also consists of three movements, although in this case the structure involves two slow outer movements surrounding a tense and agitated central one. Frid’s musical style here is somewhat more enigmatic and elusive than in the symphony, but also more imaginatively scored and profound. As with the earlier works, the overall tone is elegiac and concludes with the musical texture ebbing to nothingness.

With outstanding performances of all three works and sound of demonstration quality, this recording is a must-hear for anyone interested in Russian music of the Soviet era.

-- Christian Hoskins, Gramophone

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Grigori Frid (22 September N.S. 1915 – 22 September 2012) was a Russian composer. Born in Petrograd, now St. Petersburg, Frid studied in the Moscow Conservatory with Heinrich Litinsky and Vissarion Shebalin. A prolific composer, his most notable works included his two chamber operas, three symphonies, a series of instrumental concertos, music for theatre and cinema, vocal and chamber music. Frid's early music was written in the tradition of "Socialist realism". At the age of 55 he changed his style radically, turning to the twelve-tone and other more contemporary techniques.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigory_Frid

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Isabelle van Keulen (born 16 December, 1966) is a Dutch violinist and violist. She studied at the Sweelinck Conservatorium (now Conservatorium van Amsterdam) with Davina van Wely, then at the Mozarteum Salzburg where her teacher was Sandor Vegh. Her breakthrough came in 1984 when she won the Eurovision Young Musician of the Year. Van Keulen was artistic director of Delft Chamber Music Festival (1997-2006) and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra (2009-2012). Since 2012 she is a professor at the Luzern University of Arts. Van Keulen plays a Guarneri del Gesù violin from 1734, the ex-Novello.
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabelle_van_Keulen
http://www.isabellevankeulen.com/biography

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Olivier Triendl (born 1970 in Mallersdorf, Bavaria) is a German pianist. He studied with Rainer Fuchs, Karl-Heinz Diehl, Eckart Besch, Gerhard Oppitz and Oleg Maisenberg, and is winner of several national and international competitions. As a soloist as well as a chamber musician, Triendl established himself in recent years as an extremely versatile artist, with about 100 CD recordings demonstrate his commitment to the unknown repertoire of the classical, romantic and contemporary music. In 2006 he founded the International Chamber Music Festival “Classix Kempten” in Kempten, Bavaria.
http://www.icmf.nl/en/musician/oliver-triendl/

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Ruben Gazarian (born 8 November, 1971 in Yerevan) is an Armenian conductor. He studied violin at the National Conservatoire in Yerevan (violin) and the Leipzig Conservatoire (violin & conducting). Gazarian was concertmaster, then principal conductor, of the Westsächsisches Symphonieorchester until 2002. He was appointed musical director and principal conductor of the renowned Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn at the start of the season of 2002-2003. Furthermore, at the beginning of 2015 Ruben Gazarian assumed the additional position of Artistic Director of the Georgian Chamber Orchestra Ingolstadt.

https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Gazarian-Ruben.htm

https://www.rubengazarian.com/en/

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