PAVLOVA: Symphonies Nos. 2 and 4

Album review

Touted as a musical visionary, Alla Pavlova might be expected to employ the symphonic form in the ecstatic, explosive manner of her great Russian predecessor and fellow mystic, Alexander Scriabin. However, despite what seem like obvious similarities of lush harmonies and shimmering orchestration, Pavlova's symphonic expressions have a distinctly different aim than Scriabin's cosmic extravaganzas, and her visions are decidedly more personal and less egomaniacal. The Symphony No. 2, "For the New Millennium" (1998, revised 2002) and the Symphony No. 4 (2002) have some of the intense post-Romantic languor and chromatic ambiguity of Scriabin's music, but also seem indebted in some of their resilient melodies and rugged counterpoint to the symphonies of Shostakovich. Yet even though Pavlova is composing well into the contemporary postmodern period, her music does not smack of pastiche or appear to be a commentary in any specific way on her musical antecedents, but seems instead a testament to her own private spirituality, as expressed in a rich, unabashedly tonal language. These works are unforcedly neo-Romantic, and as such, will seem hopelessly naïve to die-hard fans of the modernists; but the performances by the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, under Vladimir Fedoseyev, are committed and convincing, and both works are compelling for their emotional honesty, if not for any startling innovations or revelations. Naxos offers clear and vibrant sound quality.
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