Alexandr Mosolov / Herbert Henck (1996)

Most of Alexander Mosolov's music is filled with raging passion and dark colors, sadness, despair, longing, resignation, no resolution, and no triumph. Mosolov's reputation in the West rested, until quite recently, on a handful of orchestral works, in particular the 1928 Zavod (in English, The Iron Foundry) which Stokowski championed and Toscanini introduced to New York audiences, and whose hammering rhythms cast the composer as the "machine music" man, the very embodiment of Russian Constructivism. The characterization worked against Mosolov in his own, troubled, lifetime and has continued to obscure the diversity of his music.

Tracklist

1. Sonata for Piano No. 2: I - Sonata 9:56
2. Sonata for Piano No. 2: II - Adagio 7:08
3. Sonata for Piano No. 2: III - Finale 5:43
4. Deux Nocturnes: I 2:56
5. Deux Nocturnes: II 3:31
6. Sonata for Piano No. 5: I 5:25
7. Sonata for Piano No. 5: II - Elegia 5:45
8. Sonata for Piano No. 5: III - Scherzo Marciale 2:50
9. Sonata for Piano No. 5: IV - Adagio Languente e Patetico 8:39

Herbert Henck, piano

ECM New Series 1569
78118-21569-2