Album Description
German (or Hermann) Galynin (also spelled Galinin; accent on the second syllable) had the misfortune to live under the dark shadow of Stalin's suffocating cultural policies, and he has remained almost totally unknown outside of Russia. Yuli Turovsky, acting on memories of having performed some of Galynin's music before emigrating from Moscow in 1976, and with the aid of colleagues still living there, has undertaken to bring his music to the west. The Third Quartet was written in 1946, three years after the Eighth Symphony, one of Shostakovich's trilogy of "War" symphonies (Nos. 7, 8 and 9). The Third Quartet bears striking resemblances to this symphony. Both works are in five movements, both are artistic statements born of tragedy and suffering, and while the Quartet, at about 35 minutes is not as long as the sixty-minute symphony, each is a work of grand scale and proportion. Furthermore, each contains a brutal, march-like second movement, a third movement depicting the destructive power of war, and a fourth in the form of a passacaglia, "a requiem in [its] depth of inner sorrow" in the words of Yoritoyo Inouye. The quartet's first movement opens with a seemingly light-hearted theme set to the polka rhythm, but there is an almost relentless undercurrent of mordant wit and grotesquerie throughout. This is not happy music. The finale offers a note of tentative hope, of smiling through the tears. The seventeen-minute concerto is in a single movement consisting of several linked episodes. A rhythmic figure (short-long, short-long) announced by the soloist and repeated by strings in the opening bars (Lento assai) serves as the pervasive unifying motif of the concerto. A sudden change of pace (Allegro moderato) brings a headlong rush of sixteenth notes, with piano and strings passing musical material playfully back and forth. Another sudden change of tempo brings the Andante cantabile, which begins dolce and rises to a peak of intensity before the arrival of the passage marked "Cadenza," surely one of the strangest in the repertory inasmuch as it offers no opportunities whatsoever for displays of temperament or virtuosity. Next comes a Largo interlude. This slowly gains momentum until the music is essentially moving along in a healthy allegro tempo. The remainder of the concerto consists of an almost obsessive development of the short-long rhythmic motif that introduced the work, culminating in a grandiose peroration in C major.
About the Artist
I Musici de Montréal Chamber Orchestra
Founded in 1983 by cellist and conductor Yuli Turovsky, I Musici de Montréal is a chamber orchestra of 15 musicians that presents a vast repertoire extending from the baroque to the contemporary. The orchestra presents a busy schedule of over 100 concerts per season throughout the world including three prestigious series in Montreal. This extraordinary amount of activity places I Musici amongst the most important touring orchestras in Canada. Since its beginnings, I Musici has, to date, released 44 CDs that are distributed in more than 50 countries around the world. These recordings have won the orchestra and Maestro Turovsky many awards. The Orchestra has received the coveted Diapason d'or for its recording of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 14, and was presented with a Rosette from Penguin Guide to Compact Discs and Cassettes in 1992 for its recording of Handel's Concerti grossi, Opus 6 - which is now considered a benchmark.
Yuli Turovsky Conductor
Born in Moscow, Yuli Turovsky's musical awakening began early on. By the age of 7, he was seriously invested in the study of the cello. He entered the celebrated Tchaikovsky Conservatory where he had the honor to study with the celebrated Galina Kozulupova and in 1969 received First Prize in the USSR Cello Competition. The following year he was among the laureates of the 22nd Prague Spring International Competition. His studies completed, he began the first of many tours around the world as a member of the celebrated Moscow Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Rudolph Barchai. After immigrating to Canada and establishing himself in Montreal, Yuli Turovsky carried on his brilliant musical career as a soloist, as a member of the Turovsky Duo with his wife Eleonora and as a founding member of the Borodine Trio. Created in 1977, he remained with his trio until 1993. The quality of his performances have made him an audience favourite. The symphony orchestras of Detroit, Montreal, Chicago, Athens, Jerusalem and Stockholm have welcomed him as a soloist and he continues to be a recording artist, counting more than 80 CDs. In spite of his formidable schedule, Yuli Turovsky continues to teach at the Faculté de musique of l'Université de Montréal where he has formed a generation of cellists. 2002 marked the 25th anniversary of musical life for Yuli Turovsky in Canada: a quarter of a century of remarkable creativity that constitutes a special heritage and a unique source of inspiration.
