Except for an opera,
The Diary of Anne Frank
, the music of Soviet composer
Grigory Frid
is all but unknown, apparently even in Russia.
Frid
's long life encompassed both the Russian Revolution and the rise of
Vladimir Putin
. He composed in several idioms, including serialist, but the music here, from earlier in his career, is simpler in nature, running from the tonalities of
Shostakovich
and in the
Violin Sonata No. 2
, perhaps
Prokofiev
to Romantic harmonies. Yet it has a distinctive melancholy flavor, attributed by the performers here, who have single-handedly rediscovered much of the music, to anti-Jewish discrimination
suffered in
Stalin
's Soviet Union. The
, with its long-breathed lines, certainly fills this bill, but equally strong are the short pieces of
The Calendar of Nature, Op. 17
, short natural scenes fully rooted in the Romantic era yet not derivative of anything in the large repertory of compositions on this theme. They're delightful. Violinist
Isabelle van Keulen
and pianist
Oliver Triendl
seem to have lived with this music for a while, and their performances beautifully capture the mood in the long lines of the two violin sonatas. A major draw is
Challenge Classics
' sound, recorded at the Deutschlandfunk Kammermusiksaal in Cologne, and catching all the textures of
van Keulen
's violin as it finds its way through this new music, much of which isn't simple technically. Any of the pieces on this album could profitably be included in chamber recitals in the future. ~ James Manheim