A Swiss Homage to Andrés Segovia
While My Guitar Was Gently Weeping
Music From The Royal Courts Of Germany
Minsk Music - Chamber Music from Belarus

Minsk Music - Chamber Music from Belarus

Musical Impressions from Belarus
Nearly terra incognita in the musical landscape: Whereas the Baltic states called attention to themselves musically during the 1980s, and the former Soviet republics such as the Ukraine and Georgia have come to the fore thanks to individual personalities, things have remained strangely quiet in Belarus. To be sure, the country between Poland, the Baltic states, Russia, and the Ukraine has a long musical tradition, but a meaningful encounter is still welcome.

For ears used to the avant-garde, this encounter is irritating at first, for this music is not intended to be innovative, nor is it oriented on the current state of contemporary music. Belarusian composers like to work with models from musical history, but they rarely do so with the bitter irony that is found, for example, in the early works of Arvo Pärt or in those of the German-Russian Alfred Schnittke. The rebellious pathos of the Georgian Gija Kantscheli or the kitsch-consciousness of the Ukrainian Valentin Silvestrov is also foreign to them. If at all, one encounters such playfulness only in some of the works of Vyacheslav Kuznetsov. The music presented on this CD, however, hardly ever shows itself vehement or rebellious. On the contrary, it seems to exploit its models, it seems to want to free itself, whereby it has overtones of deep melancholy. It sets out on the road, so to speak. In 1990Sergey Beltiukov, Galina Gorelova, Vyacheslav Kuznetsov, Dmitry Lybin, and others founded the Belarusian Society for Contemporary Music. We can therefore expect to hear much from this music scene in the future.

Valery Karetnikov was born in 1940 in a Russian village in the southern Urals near Tscheljabinsk and came to Minsk at the age of six. He initially worked in the Minsk Tractor Factory. Only at the age of eighteen did he start his professional training, studying composition with Evgeny Glebov and later, until 1970, with P. Podkovyrov at the Minsk Conservatory. He taught for fifteen years in various Russian and Belarusian cities, until he returned to Minsk in 1985. Since then he has taught composition there at the Belarusian Academy of Music.
Karetnikov’s works include a symphony, two piano concertos, the suite The Seasons, chamber music, songs, and over eighty works for piano. In his tonal language, which is obliged to tradition, Karetnikov places emphasis on a clear formal structure and richness of color, for example in this three-movement Quintet for flute and string quartet from 2003.

Galina Gorelova is today one of the most important representatives of Belarusian composing. Born in 1951 in Minsk, she studied composition with Dmitry Smolsky, a pioneer of Belarusian music; subsequently she was assistant to Anatoly Bogatyrev. From 1980-87 she attended the master classes of Yuri Fortunatov at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. Today she teaches composition, orchestral music, and counterpoint at the Belarusian Academy of Music in Minsk. Her oeuvre encompasses several concertos (for example, for violin, for balalaika, etc.), chamber music, choral works, song cycles, and piano pieces. She has also written occasional music for radio, theater, and television.

Gorelova is considered a representative of Belarusian neo- Romanticism. This is particularly obvious in her piece The Starling above the Sextens’ House, which combines elements of Baroque music with Mozart and Ravel. This trio, composed in 2004, for flute, guitar, and cello, is in three movements: “The forgotten melody for Han” (a reference to guitarist Han Jonkers) is informed by the guitar and the old Dutch song “Cecilie.” The flute contributes neo- Baroque embellishments. We thus experience an idyll that is disrupted at times by modernisms, not in a drastic manner, but – as is often the case in Gorelova – in a rather subliminal, but nevertheless, gently disconcerting way.
In the middle movement, entitled “The Starling above the Sextens’ House,” the flute sings the song of the star. The guitar and cello pizzicatos imitate the sounds of bells (which are so important for Gorelova), and the guitar plays the sentimental melody of a mechanical barrel organ; The bell ringer delivers (in the cello) an emotional monologue. In this manner, a small, somewhat melancholy theater scene comes into being – in the appropriate brevity and succinctness. In the final movement, “Celebration of the Flute,” the flute dominates and shows off. In a witty manner, Gorelova combines elements of Baroque music and, above all, two quotations from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Inventions.
Outwardly similar is the likewise three-movement duo Tatiana’s Day from 2001. It was commissioned by the Belarusian guitarist Valery Zhivalevsky, as were the suite for guitar and piano Memories of Nesvizh (2000), and the Concerto for guitar, string orchestra, and bells (1997). As in The Starling above the Sextens’ House, the title piece is found in the middle of the work. In contrast to it, however, all irony has been banned here; the stylistic borrowings are set with due gravity.
The first movement, “My house is fused with the sorrow of the evening,” is marked by melancholy over the transitoriness of life and the fleetingness of time. The soul is lonely, but pulls itself together for a short, yearning song in the cello. The middle movement, according to the composer, captures the mood of a frosty January day. For a short time the soul finds peace, since it is in harmony with nature. Tatiana is the patron saint of students; her name day, the 25th of January, marks the beginning of the vacation period. The finale, “I bid farewell at the wayside,” quotes the first line of Federico García Lorca’s poem Farewell. The nearness of death lends the music a tragic tone.

Sergey Beltiukov was born in 1956 at Bolbasovo (Vitebsk Province) and began playing piano already at the age of six. He soon won various prizes, whereupon he was invited to study at the music college of Minsk Conservatory (1971–1975). Subsequently, he attended the Academy of Music, completing his studies with Grigory Scherschevsky in 1980. He then studied in the composition class of Evgeny Glebov until 1989. Since 1995 he has worked for the Belarusian Radio, at first as editor in charge of the musical entertainment program, currently as assistant director of the culture channel. He has written five symphonies, music for a ballet (Rogneda), cantatas, chamber and piano music, as well as music for movies, television, and radio.

Beltiukov’s String Quartet from 2003 is in tripartite form. The first part is cheerful, while the second reflects the often difficult reality of life. Finally, the third part, which follows attacca, a merry village festivity, again takes up the main theme of the first section.

Dmitry Lybin, born in 1963 in Minsk, completed his studies in musicology at the Russian Academy of Music in Moscow in 1986, and in composition with Dmitry Smolsky at the Belarusian Academy of Music in Minsk in 1994. Since 2001 he has taught there himself. He initially served the Belarusian Society for Contemporary Music as secretary, and since 2001 as its president.

The Seven Small Fancies on a Theme by Glinka was written in 2003 as a commission from the Minsk String Quartet for a program with the flutist Bruno Meier and the guitarist Han Jonkers. The 200th birthday of Mikhail Glinka (1804–1856), the father of Russian music, provided the occasion. The first theme of Glinka’s unfinished viola sonata forms the basis of the Fancies. Of the composers represented here, Lybin is the most progressive. New possibilities of sound production (for example, the quarter tones in the middle section) are combined with traditional techniques and neo-Romantic aesthetics, resulting in charming and at times strident contrasts.

Vsevolod Gritskevich, born into a family of teachers in 1947 at Baranovichi (Brest Province), is a double talent. On the one hand, he trained as a sound engineer and worked for several years for the Belarusian Television and Radio Company. On the other hand, he studied to be a pianist and music theory teacher. Decisive for him was the encounter with Eduard Balsis, a professor at the Vilna Conservatory, whom he met while an officer in Lithuania and who taught him for free. He completed his composition studies at the Minsk Academy of Music with Dmitry Smolsky. Gritskevich has written chamber music, vocal music, theater music, orchestral music, and piano concertos. In addition, he has also studied drawing and painting.

It is therefore not surprising that his Poem for flute, violin, viola, guitar, and cello, from 2003, was inspired by a painting by the Belarusian artist Ferdinand Emanuel Ruschiz (1870–1936). At the Church, painted in 1899, hangs in the National Art Museum in Minsk and is evidently of great importance for the Belarusian identity. It shows a spring day in a village, with sunshine and a blue sky filled with many clouds. The view through two closely spaced buildings is of a seemingly wide landscape with trees that are still bare and of a deep horizon. Similarly varied is the often atmospheric music that is oriented on Classical and Romantic models. This so evocative and yet – between sun and clouds, between narrowness and hopefulness – ambivalent picture may perhaps stand for the Belarusian mentality.
Thomas Meyer

Bruno Meier
The Swiss flutist Bruno Meier received his training from André Jaunet (Zurich), Marcel Moyse (Brattleboro, Vermont), and Peter-Lukas Graf at the Basel Academy of Music, where he earned the concert diploma with honors. Since then he has been active at home and abroad as a pedagogue and soloist.
As a musicologist, Meier has in recent years increasingly done research with the goal of finding unknown literature for his instrument. This led to numerous CD and radio recordings. Noteworthy are his premiere recordings of the flute concertos by Myslivecek, Vanhal, Krommer, Rosetti, Reicha, and Witt.
His collaborations with the Prague Chamber Orchestra and the Stamitz Quartet (complete recording of Franz Krommer’s flute quintets) attracted interest throughout the world. Besides the standard works of the flute literature, his repertoire encompasses the music of forgotten composers of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, as well as well-known compositions of the Baroque up to the Modern era.

Han Jonkers
The Dutch guitarist Han Jonkers studied at the Maastricht College of Music. This was followed by further studies, which he completed with a soloist’s diploma, at the Basel Academy of Music with Konrad Ragossnig and Oscar Ghiglia. Han Jonkers was prizewinner at international competitions (in 1983 in Viña del Mar, Chile, and in 1985 at the Concurs Internacional Maria Canals in Barcelona, Spain). He has lived in Switzerland since 1981. He gives workshops and concertizes regularly as a soloist and in chamber music formations in Europe, South America, and South Africa. Han Jonkers is instructor of classical guitar at the Teachers College of Canton Aargau in Aarau. Moreover, he is general editor of a series of guitar music published by the Aarau music publishing house Nepomuk. His CDs have appeared on the labels CADENZA RECORDS, BAYER RECORDS, and PAN CLASSICS, and have received critical acclaim.

Minsk String Quartet
The Minsk String Quartet is made of four young musicians from the Belarusian capital of Minsk. All four are graduates of the Belarusian State Academy of Music. Before they founded the Minsk String Quartet in 2000, they played in the most renowned music collectives of the Republic of Belarus. Their repertoire contains works of various epochs and stylistic directions, but above all chamber music of Belarusian composers. They have premiered works by Kim Tesakov, Dmitry Smolsky, Sergey Beltiukov, and Valery Karetnikov.

Yuri Herman, born in 1972 in Minsk, completed his degree in violin with Anri Janpolsky, and was subsequently a teacher at the Academy of Music. He is a prizewinner of the All-Russian Taneyev Competition for Chamber Music. He was concertmaster of the State Chamber Orchestra of the Republic of Belarus.
Alexei Vlasenko, born in 1974 at Gorodok near Vitebsk, completed his degree at the Academy of Music in the violin studio of Lilja Umnova. He played in the Orchestra of the State Musical Theater.
Vladimir Himoroda was born in 1972 in Dzherzhinsk. He completed his degree at the Academy of Music in the viola studio of Lucia Lastovka. He played in the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Belarus and in the soloists’ ensemble Classic-Avant-Garde.
Denis Skliarov was born in 1973 in Poltava. He studied cello with Evgeny Feschenko at the Academy of Music. He was a prizewinner at international competitions, a member of the New Belarusian Quartet, principal cellist of the Russian-American Youth Symphony Orchestra, and played in the State Chamber Orchestra of the Republic of Belarus.

The Partnership Aargau-Belarus
The partnership Aargau-Belarus is an inter-cultural project of the Cultural Office of the Education, Culture, and Sports Department of Canton Aargau. It makes possible the cultural exchange between East and West, it establishes connections between Canton Aargau and Belarus. Since 1996, Bruno Meier and Han Jonkers have traveled several times to Belarus, where they have each taught workshops at the Academy of Music, and appeared as guest soloists in various venues with the Minsk String Quartet and the soloists ensemble Classic-Avant-Garde. Since 2001, the Minsk String Quartet has in return made guest appearances on several occasions in Aargau at the invitation of the Canton.