Andrei Volkonsky - Piano Quintet Op.5

Unknown Performers - To Yuri Shaporin - 00:00 / 10:01 (Burlesque) / 15:16 (Passacaglia) / 23:45 (Fuga)
A descendant of Volkonsky, Russian aristocratic princely family in exile, he was born in Geneva in 1933. As a child he played his improvisations to Sergei Rachmaninoff. Then he studied piano at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève with Johnny Aubert and with the legendary Dinu Lipatti. The Volkonsky family resettled in Moscow in 1947 and he would be studying under Yuri Shaporin. He was among the first Soviet composers who began experimenting with twelve-tone and serial techniques. His music, attempting at a real renewal and enrichment of the musical language in Russia, was banned from performance. Volkonsky said that he had been fighting for 25 years to establish and preserve his artistic individuality in Moscow before requesting an exit visa in December 1972.
He said : "The next day I was expelled from the Union of Composers. All my concerts were cancelled. The record company was instructed not to release the records I had made…"
But he was not allowed to leave the country immediately. Five months of suspense and unemployment followed, during which he hounded the passport office and sold most of his belongings, including scores and books, to support himself.
"The Soviet authorities finally had the intelligence and wisdom to release the composer who was of no use to them in the fulfilment of their music five-year plans, who could not compose that only kind of music which was allowed in the Soviet Union… I was just a speck of dirt in the grand marble palace of the Soviet Culture." said Volkonsky. He left the USSR in 1973.

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[jonathankraal]

Thanks for uploading! I did not know this compser. He does have some great moments in this piece, but not everyting works for me.

[trees]

This a surprising master piece. Had Volkonsky been keeping writing music like this instead of pursuing serial method he would be a composer not less than those top famous figures?