Galina Ustvolskaya, the composer, believed that the only way to attain harmony in her music was through prayer, as evidenced by the programmatic titles of her symphonies.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Ustvolskaya described her own music as not religious, but spiritual, and she chose to live a reclusive life, comparing herself to Diogenes.
Compositional Technique
In her late sonatas, Ustvolskaya used clusters played with elbows and palms, moving away from classical piano notions, with one critic noting the sound of bells, brass, and a mystical choir.
Compositional Technique
Ustvolskaya's music is described as iconoclastic and unconventional, destroying clichés and requiring 'new ears for new music,' as Friedrich Nietzsche suggested.
Composer Biography
Dmitri Shostakovich, a famous Russian composer, was Galina Ustvolskaya's composition professor and was proud of her, predicting a great future for her music.
Performer Biography
Antonii Baryshevskyi, the pianist on this recording, was born in Kiev in 1988 and has won over a dozen international competitions, including the First Prize at the Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition in 2014.
