IDAGIO | Modest Mussorgsky: Russian Songs, Pictures at an Exhibition - Igor Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms 3149028137644

Featuring

Galina Vishnevskaya
Igor Markevitch
Russian Symphony Orchestra
Berliner Philharmoniker
State Academic Russian Chorus
Modest Mussorgsky

Igor Stravinsky

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Composition History

Igor Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms was commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky to mark the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's foundation.

Performer Biography

English composer Benjamin Britten wrote the soprano part in his War Requiem specifically for Galina Vishnevskaya, the soprano on this album.

Composer Biography

Igor Markevitch, the conductor on this album, was a protégé of Alfred Cortot, a pupil of Nadia Boulanger, and one of the last composers for the Ballets Russes.

Performer Biography

Galina Vishnevskaya's career on the Bolshoi stage was cut short due to her and her husband Mstislav Rostropovich's political beliefs.

Performer Biography

Galina Vishnevskaya, the soprano on this album, became the most exciting soprano to emerge in the Soviet Union after World War II.

Compositional Technique

Igor Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms uses a curious ensemble of 14 woodwind, 13 brass, harp, two pianos, cellos, double-basses, percussion, mixed chorus, and boys' choir.

Performer Biography

Galina Vishnevskaya and her husband Mstislav Rostropovich were stripped of Soviet citizenship in 1978 for supporting Nobel Prize-winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn.