Sergey Prokofiev, another composer on this album, spent his early years on a country estate near Donetsk in modern-day Ukraine and began composing piano miniatures and juvenile operas at a young age.
Album & Artwork
The album "Somnia" is special to pianist Denis Kozhukhin, as it takes him back to his childhood, with Tchaikovsky's "Album for the Young" being among his first recital pieces.
Composer Biography
Pyotr Tchaikovsky, a composer featured on this album, disliked his teaching job at the Moscow Conservatory and resigned in 1878 to focus on composition and travel.
Composition History
Tchaikovsky's Children's Album, Op. 39, was sketched in April and May 1878 at Kamianka, an estate belonging to his sister, and completed that summer at Verbivka.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Tchaikovsky's Children's Album, Op. 39, is subtitled 'à la Schumann' and shares affinities with Robert Schumann's Kinderszenen, composed forty years earlier.
Composition History
Prokofiev composed Music for Children, Op. 65, in the village of Polenovo, south of Moscow, inspired by a summer spent with his family and the natural environment.
Composer Biography
Alexey Shor, born in Ukraine in 1970, emigrated to Israel in 1991 and now lives in the United States, having transitioned to a musical career later in life after initially training as a mathematician.
