Mikhail Volchok initially pursued a career as a concert pianist, winning 1st Prize at the International Bach Competition in 1976 and recording for the Melodiya label.
Compositional Technique
Mikhail Volchok's music blends major and minor harmonies and interweaves tone clusters with traditional melodic sequences, offering a reprieve from dissonance.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Mikhail Volchok's compositional method is intuitive and spontaneous, using an atonal soundscape but rotating around augmented chords to create a new kind of tonality.
Composer Biography
Mikhail Volchok, the composer, was born in war-torn Leningrad into a family of pianists at the end of Stalin's reign, where music offered an escape from the harsh realities.
Historical Context
During Mikhail Volchok's youth, Stalin's Minister of Culture, Andrei Zhdanov, enforced strict conformism in music, condemning 'atonalism' and anything deemed 'formalist' or 'excessively hermetic'.
Composition History
Mikhail Volchok began composing his own music in 2006, inspired by the birth of his first grandson and a desire to revisit his youthful ambition to compose.
Album & Artwork
The album's cover art, titled 'Birches', was created by Anastasia Voltchok, who is also one of the pianists featured on the recording.
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