Iron Foundry - Piano Concerto No. 1 | Classical Music CD | Perfect for Relaxation, Study & Dinner Parties

Alexander Mosolov (1900-1973) was an integral figure of the Soviet avant-garde prominent in the 1920s. Repressed by state officials for writing modern pessimistic music not conforming with Socialist Realism, he was eventually marginalized. This recording showcases almost every genre of Mosolov's output: orchestral, concerto, chamber, solo piano, and vocal. This eclectic smattering of pieces, however, is not the best introduction to Mosolov's world. His piano music is the greatest achievement of his oeuvre, so if you're not familiar with Mosolov, explore the piano sonatas first.Conductor Johannes Kalitzke and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin deliver a strong performance of Mosolov's one-hit wonder, the orchestral miniature "Iron Foundry" (1927), which employs layers of ostinatos evoking the incessant roar of machine pistons. The result is not so much a celebration of industrialization as an ominous mechanistic vision straight out of Fritz Lang's Metropolis. "Tractor's Arrival at the Kholkoz" sees Mosolov emulating Shostakovich's irony in a depiction of a pastoral scene at a collective farm suddenly interrupted by dissonant stabs of activity and a grotesque version of "The Internationale." In the "Four Newspaper Announcements," Mosolov is ahead of his time. This is a 4-minute collection of four aphoristic songs for soprano and orchestra in which Mosolov sets to music trivial headlines and blurbs from Izvestiya. Topics range from a lost dog to an official name change. Prokofiev admired the work and audiences were utterly baffled by it.The Piano Concerto No. 1 (1927) is receiving its first commercial recording in over 22 years. We are long overdue for this. Fair warning to those ill at ease with modernism: this one is a doozy. Mosolov's concerto is scored like a wildly extravagant experiment in gaudy colors with violent timpani and jarring cacophonous sounds from virtually every section of the orchestra. I love Mosolov's music, but even this is not easily digestible. "Andante lugubre" is a typical tempo marking for Mosolov and he opens the concerto with a grotesque and foreboding version of the Dies Irae motif. The orchestral writing is heavily influenced by Stravinsky with even more explosive splashes of dissonant clangor. Mosolov is at his best with the piano writing, which is always disturbing, sounding like a depressed and angry Prokofiev. The "Tema concertini" movement allows for some restraint before unleashing volatile timpani clashes and eccentric flourishes from the winds. It is the extended piano cadenza that arrests my attention every time I hear it: dissonant, virtuosic, and weird. In the finale marked "Marcato," the chaos of sonorities escalates with flurries of Prokofiev-like passages, storms of percussion, loud exclamations in the brass, and all manner of jaw-dropping gestures. This is quite literally a fantastic and over-the-top concerto that is always interesting, if not coherent and easy on the ears.I'm glad to see another recording of Mosolov's sweepingly dramatic and pessimistic Legend for piano and cello (1924). But I have to say Schleiermacher and Ringela Riemke lack the anger, intensity, and Romantic fervor better conveyed in the performance by Karen Kaderavek. Compare her powerful and well-paced performance at 5:21 to the lagging 6:19 of Schleiermacher/Riemke. I have similar reservations about Schleiermacher's interpretation of the Piano Sonata No. 1 (1924), which Roslavets called the "Bible of modernism" for its assimilation of Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Schoenberg, and textbook modernist devices like tone rows and polytonality. Beyond that, it's a virtuosic powerhouse of frenzied and frightening expression. Geoffrey Douglas Madge is the only other pianist to provide a commercial recording of the sonata, now out of print. He plays this dark and nightmarish work with torrential speed and volatility; a full 2 minutes faster than Schleiermacher. Madge does everything right with this sonata, allowing the cascades and rivulets of figurations to unwind at breakneck speed and urgency. Schleiermacher, on the other hand, is lethargic and cerebral, focusing on bringing out the haunting atmosphere and eerie lines discernible in Mosolov's ostinatos. I'm pretty much a Schleiermacher groupie and will listen to anything he plays, but he disappointed me here. It's not a bad performance; he just has the wrong approach.Bottom line: Mosolov collectors need not hesitate; this is an essential recording of the discordant First Piano Concerto and a decent performance of the Legend. If you can't get your hands on the Madge recording, one has to begrudgingly accept Schleiermacher's underwhelming and sluggish performance of the Piano Sonata No. 1.