Tishchenko: Symphony No. 4, Op. 61 (Live)

Album review

Composer Boris Tishchenko, born a Soviet in 1939 and died Russian in 2010, was a disciple of Galina Ustvolskaya until 1957, and of Shostakovich until 1965. This “outsider” of the Russian musical scene distinguished himself with a very large body of work, often rather experimental pieces – both in style and substance: his Concerto No. 1 For Cello for instance was orchestrated for 48 cellos, 12 double basses and percussions! –, which never quite extended beyond the national scene, despite being performed by numerous celebrities, starting with the head of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, Gennady Rozhdestvensky. This Symphony No. 4, composed in 1974, is characterised by its oversized orchestra – some 150 musicians! –, its writing’s extravagant violence as well as its powerful originality. Five movements, each called “sinfonia” in Italian: Sinfonia di forza (Symphony of force), Sinfonia di rabbia (Symphony of rage, a fantastic essay of incredibly original orchestral sounds), Sinfonia di tristezza (Symphony of sadness), an ample elegy of soft sounds, Sinfonia di crudelta (Symphony of cruelty), more insidious, serpentine and unpredictable than openly violent, in which the composer inserted narrated prose from Turgenev, and at last Sinfonia di risorgimento e tenerezza (Symphony of revival and tenderness), a great moment of tenderness from the bottom of the soul with powerful original sounds once again. The shortest movement lasts 16 minutes, while all others clock out around 20 minutes for a total duration of an hour and a half of pure genius. Undeniably a composer worth discovering! © SM/Qobuz