From Russia With Love

Believe it or not, there’s a Russian repertoire for pipe organ, and we’ll be exploring it on our next Pipedreams broadcast. Even though the Orthodox Church in Russia specifies choral music only, and the former Soviet regime did little to encourage the instrument because of its close ties to other religious traditions, organs have been built and maintained in Russia for several centuries, and composers such as Glinka and Glazunov and even Shostakovich have written for them. You’ll hear solos from the 19th and 20th centuries, music inspired by a dream, transcribed from an opera, and an extraordinary Sonata for Organ and Cello by Tatiana Sergeieva, certain to make your ears perk up.

Unorthodox? Absolutely. Who knows anything about an organ tradition in Russia, but there is one, and we get to its heart with dance tunes sonatas, even music heard in a dream. Prepare for a delightful surprise From Russia With Love, this week on Pipedreams.

Program Broadcast dates:

June 18, 2000

Music played in the program

ALEXANDER GLAZUNOV: Prelude in D –Sergei Tsatsorin (unidentified instrument) Melodiya CD11-00306

MICHAIL GLINKA: Fugue in D –Alexander Fiseisky (1913 Sauer/Tallinn Cathedral, Estonia) Etcetera 2019

VLADIMIR ODOYEVSKY: Music heard in a dream on February 2, 1830 –Boris Romanov (1899 Cavaillé-Coll/Bolshoi Hall, Moscow Conservatory, Russia) Saison Russe CD-288020

BORIS TISHTCHENKO: Invention Number 3 –Konrad Voppel (1964 Hammer/Salvatorkirche, Duisburg, Germany) Musical Heritage Society LP-3301 IGOR STRAVINSKY (arranged by John): Circus Polka –Keith John (1981 Kleuker/Eglise du Chant d’Oiseau, Brussels, Belgium) Priory PRCD174

J.S. BACH: 2 Chorale-preludes: Vor deinen Thron, S. 668; Wir danken Dir, Gott, S. 623 –Harry Grodberg (1899 Cavaillé-Coll/Bolshoi Hall, Moscow Conservatory, Russia) Russian Radio recordings

NIKOLAI ALADOV: Sinfonia Pastorale –Winfried Pummer, flugelhorn; Anton Guggemos (Wallfahrtskirche, Steingaden, Germany) Christophorus CHR 77135

SERGEJ TANEYEV: Fughetta on Ave Maria, from Choral Variations –Sergei Tsatsorin (unidentified instrument) Melodiya CD11-00306

DIMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH: Passacaglia, from Lady Macbeth of Mstensk –Keith John (1898 Henry Willis; 1971 Hill, Norman & Beard; 1999 Nicholson/Gloucester Cathedral, England, UK) Priory PRCD370

SERGEI PROKOFIEV (arranged by Jean Guillou): March, from Love for Three Oranges –Keith John (1981 Kleuker/Eglise du Chant d’Oiseau, Brussels, Belgium) Priory PRCD174

TATIANA SERGEIEVA: Sonata for Cello and Organ –Reimund Korupp, cello; Tatiana Sergeieva (Holy Spirit Church, Heidelberg, Germany) Ambitus CD-97866

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF: Italian Polka –Markus Kühnis, Wolfgang Sieber (1983 Kuhn/Liebfrauenkirche, Zürich, Switzerland) Koch-Schwann CD-315019

This program was originally issued as #9415 in April 1994.