Anatoly Korolyov, composer
The word "PHILHARMONIA" has appeared nowadays, it did not exist in the ancient Greek. Still the word completely corresponds to the literary standarts with their tendecy to build compound words by putting their roots together. There are severel words in Greek to express "love"; each reflects its special nuance of sense. The "PHIL" — root words mean "love" — affection, fondness. Hence the whole word "PHILHARMONIA" literally means "love to the harmony". At the same time the word is the title. Yet in this case musicians assotiate it not only with the meanings above but also with the J.Adams's work "Harmony theory for an orchestra" and then with A.Schoenberg's book. But "harmony" is not just chord structure; it means beautiful and concerted sound, which assotiates with Scelsi's music. Scelsi was a composer who was paying attention to the sound maybe more then anyone else in the music history. Form and structure of the work are simplest. There are three stanzas; the first two of them are symmetrical and ended in the same way — with repeating chords within the same episode. The music is strictly diatinic — D-dur. However, apart from harmony, the timbre melody (Klangfarben melodie) is the main driving force of development. In the third stanza the energy accumulated before is being transformed into figuration and melodic development.
, a composer
Тематическая основа пьесы "Рассвет на Неве-реке" — напев одной из известнейших песен петровского времени, опубликованный в "Русских кантах" Е.В.Васильевой и В.А.Лапина. Составители сборинка так характеризуют его: "Популярность этой песни, в сознании многих людей справедливо являющейся символов канта, длится столько, сколько строится и живет город и флот." По форме сочинение весьма академично — это энергичное сонатное allegro с неторопливым эпическим вступлением и "виватной" кодой. В соответствии с монотематическими сонатными принципами гайдновского типа лаконичный и характерный напев "Как на матушке на Неве-реке" явялется практически единственным интонационным "зерном" произведения и пронизывает всю его музыкальную ткань. Каких-либо аналогий со Вступлением к опере "Хованщина" М.П.Мусоргского (под схожим титулом) автор не предполагал: в конце концов, разве не может восход солнца нал величавой Невой и пробуждающаяся жизнь нашего прекрасного города вызвать к жизни музыкальную фантазию?
, a composer
The season of 1990/91 was marked by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, one of the most brilliant in the world, to celebrate its centenary. It was in March 1990, when I fortuned to appear together with this distinguished body that inspired me to compose something in honour of it.
Therefore the brief symphonic piece, where the orchestral groups would get a fair crack of the whip, seemed a good bet for me.
The overture consists of two sections — the solemn "glorification" and vigorous toccata. Both the Russian an American orchestras performed it and not once.
