A Concert Tribute to Anatoly Zverev // Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble

CONCERT CONCEPT

Anatoly Zverev is not only the most beloved artist of the Second Avant-Garde, but also a universal master of the brush and draughtsman who united in his work the explorations of the Sixties generation with the legacy of the first avant-garde and European modernism. Not without humor, naming Leonardo himself as his teacher, he also drew upon the art of the old masters and playfully reinterpreted academic models. A brilliant illustrator and animalist, a master of the lyrical portrait and ironic caricature, creator of expressionist landscapes and abstract compositions — Zverev's legacy presents a vast palette of styles, movements, genres, and emotions.

In this concert tribute to Anatoly Zverev, the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble will present a chamber program featuring works by Dmitri Shostakovich and nonconformist composers. Paying homage to the diversity of the artist's legacy, the concert will feature compositions and original arrangements of music from various genres, styles, and movements, written by composers of Anatoly Zverev's generation. The inclusion of a masterpiece of the first avant-garde — Dmitri Shostakovich's satirical opera "The Nose" — and Alfred Schnittke's polystylistic "Gogol Suite" references Zverev's body of literary illustrations and his works inspired by the first avant-garde. Edison Denisov's "Variations on a Theme by Schubert" and Sergei Slonimsky's "Mini-Partita" pay tribute to his play with academic models and artists of the past. Pieces by Arvo Pärt and Valentin Silvestrov evoke a dialogue with post-avant-garde techniques — the serenity of minimalism and the beauty of neoclassicism.

PROGRAM

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975)
Suite from the opera "The Nose" (1928)
Arranged for chamber ensemble by Olga Tantsova
1. Overture
3. Entr'acte to Act II
4. Galop

Edison Denisov (1929–1996)
"Variations on a Theme by Schubert" for cello and piano (1986)

Arvo Pärt (b. 1935)
"Spiegel im Spiegel" for violin and piano (1978)

Alfred Schnittke (1934–1998)
"Gogol Suite" in eight movements (Suite from the music for the Taganka Theatre production "The Inspector's Tale") (1981)
Arranged for chamber ensemble by Oleg Tantsov
1. Overture
2. Chichikov's Childhood
6. The Officials
8. The Testament

Valentin Silvestrov (b. 1937)
Four Pieces for Piano, Op. 2 (2006)
1. Lullaby
2. Pastoral
3. Bagatelle
4. Postludium

Sergei Slonimsky (1932–2020)
Mini-Partita for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano (2014)
1. Microfugue
2. Microadagio
3. Microrumba

PERFORMERS

/ Konstantin Efimov (flute)
/ Oleg Tantsov (clarinet)
/ Mikhail Dubov (piano)
/ Evgeny Subbotin (violin)
/ Olga Demina (cello)

Artistic Director Victoria Korshunova


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