Rodion Shchedrin is one of the preeminent composers to emerge in Russia since World War II and was enormously prolific even before the 1990s, when his productivity shifted into hyperdrive. In the West, where access to his work remains somewhat limited, two sides of
Shchedrin's creativity are apparent, the first a tendency toward dense polyphony, extreme seriousness of expression, and economically calculated theoretical concepts spread over long spans of time, as in his Polyphonic Notebook (1972) and the Symphony No. 2 derived from it. The other side of
Shchedrin's coin is the humorous one, an almost
Spike Jones-like love of parody, abrupt collisions, and zany sounds, such as in his best-known work, the ballet Carmen Suite (1967). Both sides are addressed in Hänssler Classic's
Rodion Shchedrin: Parade à la Russe, consisting of three pieces drawn from among
Shchedrin's post 1990 chamber music and boasting three of the finest chamber musicians to emerge from the former Soviet Union, cellist
David Geringas, violinist
Dmitry Sitkovetsky, and pianist
Jascha Nemtsov.
Shchedrin himself, whose formidable skills as pianist were attested to long before the collapse of the Soviet Union and appear to have declined not a bit since, contributes the piano part in the Cello Sonata (1997), originally composed at the request of
Mstislav Rostropovich. This work is in the first mode mentioned, with long, patiently developed motivic ideas in the cello part that continuously expand, nearly for whole movements, although the opening movement has a sparseness and spirituality about it that make it seem almost a cousin to the cello movements in
Messiaen's Quatour pour le fin du temps.
Shchedrin also performs on piano in the Three Funny Pieces (1997), which is in the other mode; it is whimsical and rich with irony, and readily identifies
Shchedrin as an inheritor of the mantle of
Shostakovich.
Nemtsov is heard as pianist in the Piano Terzetto (1995), which combines the two approaches -- contrapuntal rigor and a scherzo of almost Ivesian intensity -- but an aching lyricism and a taste for the sentimental in the movement titled "Luncheon on the Grass." SWR's recording is true, upfront, and unfussy. Hänssler Classic's Rodion Shchedrin: Parade à la russe serves as a superb introduction to the work of
Rodion Shchedrin, even to those who might not have had any contact with his music.