Alexander Brincken: Orchestral Music, Vol. 1

Featuring

Alexander Brincken
Rainer Held
Royal Scottish National Orchestra

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Compositional Technique

Brincken's Third and Fourth Symphonies, composed after he emigrated to Switzerland, attempt to break away from the traditional four-movement sonata-form model, incorporating polytonality and atonality.

Composer Biography

Alexander Brincken, a Swiss citizen by choice, was born in 1952 in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) and has German, Russian, and Georgian ancestry.

Composition History

Brincken's First Symphony, begun in 1971, had to be worked on secretly during his studies at the Leningrad Conservatoire because its late-Romantic style was considered 'outdated' by his professors.

Recording & Production

This album features the first recordings of Alexander Brincken's Symphony No. 4 and Capriccio for Piano and Chamber Orchestra.

Performer Biography

Rainer Held, the conductor on this album, is a Swiss choral and orchestral conductor who has performed with orchestras worldwide and is dedicated to preserving Swiss cultural heritage.

Performer Biography

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra, founded in 1891, has a worldwide reputation for its recordings, receiving two Diapasons d'Or de l'année and eight Grammy nominations.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Brincken's musical tastes were heavily influenced by German masters like Bach, the Viennese classics, Schumann, Brahms, Bruckner, and Richard Strauss, despite his Soviet upbringing.