For listeners who revere
Shostakovich's despairing late song cycles and his death-haunted Fourteenth Symphony, this disc of three vocal symphonies by Soviet composer Alexander Lokshin will be like manna in the desert. A victim of Soviet repression -- a native of Siberia, he was twice all but banished there for writing music that wasn't positive enough for Socialist Realism -- Lokshin was not just another
Shostakovich wanna-be; he was his own man with a distinctive compositional voice and strong views on art and aesthetics, and on life and death. In these three works -- structurally symphonic but expressively lyrical -- Lokshin proves himself a convincing, even a compelling composer with a unique but not eccentric point of view. And these three performances with
Michel Swierczewski leading the Grosses Orchestra of Graz, Lokshin's Fifth Symphony setting two of Shakespeare's sonnets for baritone, string orchestra, and harp; his Ninth Symphony setting five poems by Leonid Martynov for baritone and string orchestra; and his Eleventh and final symphony setting a sonnet by Luis de Camos for soprano and orchestra as a series of variations, receive their first western performances. The results are thoroughly persuasive. With Czech soprano Vanda Tabery and Australian baritone Jeffrey Black, Lokshin's intensely expressive and wonderfully natural vocal writing receives completely sympathetic treatment while
Swierczewski and the provincial Grosses Orchestra make the best possible case for his gnarly orchestral writing. Caught in BIS' amazingly atmospheric but astoundingly clear sound, this disc should be heard by anyone who loves late twentieth century music.