Raykhelson, Igor - Viola Concerto / Violin Concerto - Bashmet, Yuri (viola)
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Nikolay Sachenko, violin
Yuri Bashmet, viola
Novaya Rossiya Orchestra / Claudio Vandeli; Alexander Slatkovsky
The Modernist era wasn't too kind to the violin concerto, so it's easy to understand why Igor Raykhelson takes the last generation of Romantics as a starting point for his work in the genre. Raykhelson's career to date has been divided between Russia and America. It has also been divided between jazz and classical, with the emphasis shifting decisively toward the classical in recent years.
Both dichotomies are played out in these concertos. Rachmaninoff is a clear model (to the point of quotation in the Viola Concerto), with Raykhelson drawing on his predecessor's success in bridging Russian and American tastes. But the Romanticism is up against competition from Raykhelson's jazz side, with swung rhythms and jazzy chords appearing in the finales of both works. In fact, these concertos, which date from 2007 and 2005, respectively, mark an endpoint in the composer's journey from jazz pianist to classical composer, so the jazz only has a nominal presence in what is otherwise a predominantly late-Romantic aesthetic. It integrates well enough, but it always feels constrained, with the soloists only occasionally breaking into jazz rhythms and never even contemplating improvisation.