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Musical Opinion

This is the latest issue in Divine Art’s series of recordings of music by the great Vyacheslav Artyomov (b 1940), whom I have long regarded as being the finest living Russian composer. As with the previous nine CDs in this series, Divine Art’s presentation is very fine, the quality of the recording most acceptable and with booklet notes by the composer’s wife, Valeria Lyubetskaya, these superbly committed performances can hardly be better presented then they are here. In Spe arose from an undertaking the composer gave (rather rashly, as he admits) to the late Mstislav Rostropovich for a cello concerto, following the UK premiere in 1993 of Artyomov’s symphony ‘The Morning Star will Arise’ – the new work, begun as a concerto, evolved over the years to the 47-minute symphony we have here.

Falling into 21 sections, each with a programmatic aspect, the one work which structurally In Spe perhaps is reminiscent of is Ein Heldenleben by way of late Scriabin, but the style is entirely Artyomov’s own. It makes a considerable cumulative impression, more so from such totally committed a performance as it receives on this occasion.

There is no doubt that in the recent large-scaled work, the composer’s aesthetic and musical language are not aspects which immediately reveal themselves even to the attentive listener, who will, however, be sufficiently impressed as to want to explore the symphony fuller through repeated listening – in which case, the recording here offers the perfect solution.

The four shorter choral works that make up the Latin Hymns are perhaps easier to grasp, but their inherent qualities are no less apparent. Collectors of this most important series need not hesitate.