Ilia Radoslavov - Mussorgsky & Prokofiev (2022) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Ilia Radoslavov, piano professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, performing Prokofiev and Mussorgsky.

Prokofiev’s Ten Pieces can also be seen as a work involved in representation, but this time the music aims to render the story of a well-known play, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Initially, Prokofiev is commissioned by the Bolshoi Theatre to write a ballet based on the play, but the ballet’s production is subsequently cancelled by the Stalinist government, a common occurrence of political censorship in the arts at the time. In response, Prokofiev penned the Ten Pieces for piano in order to be able to perform the music himself instead of relying on the government’s approval for orchestral performance. However, these pieces are not mere orchestral reductions, but pianistically conceived scene paintings, with a virtuoso pianist in mind since Prokofiev himself was a virtuoso performer.

Mussorgsky’s Pictures is a seminal work, both a precursor of and a crowning achievement of representation of painting in music. Pictures was written in 1874 and was inspired by an exhibition commemorating Mussorgsky’s close friend, painter and architect Victor Hartmann. The complex sound imagery and pianistic texture result in the creation of a series of short musical scenes or vignettes, each with its own particular character, representing a given painting through idiosyncratic musical means, while also encapsulating musical messages about Russian culture and mythology.

TRACKLIST

1. Ilia Radoslavov - Pictures at an Exhibition: I. Promenade
2. Ilia Radoslavov - Pictures at an Exhibition: II. 1. The Gnome
3. Ilia Radoslavov - Pictures at an Exhibition: III. Promenade
4. Ilia Radoslavov - Pictures at an Exhibition: IV. 2. The Old Castle
5. Ilia Radoslavov - Pictures at an Exhibition: V. Promenade
6. Ilia Radoslavov - Pictures at an Exhibition: VI. 3. Tuileries (Children Quarrelling at Play)
7. Ilia Radoslavov - Pictures at an Exhibition: VII. 4. Bydlo
8. Ilia Radoslavov - Pictures at an Exhibition: VIII. Promenade
9. Ilia Radoslavov - Pictures at an Exhibition: IX. 5. Ballet of Unhatched Chicks
10. Ilia Radoslavov - Pictures at an Exhibition: X. 6. Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle
11. Ilia Radoslavov - Pictures at an Exhibition: XI. Promenade
12. Ilia Radoslavov - Pictures at an Exhibition: XII. 7. Limoges. The Market (The Great News)
13. Ilia Radoslavov - Pictures at an Exhibition: XIII. 8. Catacombae (Sepulchrum romanum) Con mortius in lingua mortua
14. Ilia Radoslavov - Pictures at an Exhibition: XIV. 9. The Hut on Hen’s Legs (Baba Yaga)
15. Ilia Radoslavov - Pictures at an Exhibition: XV. 10. The Great Gate of Kiev
16. Ilia Radoslavov - Ten Piano Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 75: I. Folk Dance
17. Ilia Radoslavov - Ten Piano Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 75: II. Scene
18. Ilia Radoslavov - Ten Piano Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 75: III. Minuet
19. Ilia Radoslavov - Ten Piano Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 75: IV. Young Juliet
20. Ilia Radoslavov - Ten Piano Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 75: V. Masks
21. Ilia Radoslavov - Ten Piano Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 75: VI. Montagues and Capulets
22. Ilia Radoslavov - Ten Piano Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 75: VII. Friar Laurence
23. Ilia Radoslavov - Ten Piano Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 75: VIII. Mercutio
24. Ilia Radoslavov - Ten Piano Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 75: IX. Dance of the Girls With Lilies
25. Ilia Radoslavov - Ten Piano Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 75: X. Romeo and Juliet Before Parting



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