Frid / Finucane / Blumina - Clarinet Sonatas [CD]

Grigory Frid's politically and morally ambitious operas have made him known to a broader public even outside his native Russia. His chamber music is not so popular, but it too holds discoveries in store, as John Finucane and Elisaveta Blumina impressively demonstrate on this recording premiere of his two clarinet sonatas. Musical wit, tonal beauty, and virtuosity in the treatment of tonality and instrumentation reveal a compositional talent stimulated by exchanges with the greatest of Frid's times. This did not come about by mere chance. When Frid established the Moscow Youth Music Club rather precisely midway through his long life of almost a hundred years, the beneficial effect of this cultural classical oasis in the midst of the oppressive Soviet present could not yet by foreseen. Schnittke, Gubaildulina, Denisov, and Kancheli had their works performed there, and world stars of the present and future like Shostakovich, Gilels, Bashmet, and Richter were guests. Even when he was a boy, Frid was exposed to this special atmosphere: Nathan Milstein and Vladimir Horowitz played duets and his parents home. Elisaveta Blumina is especially fond of much to little known music from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. She received an ECHO Klassik award for her trio recording with works by Francaix, Poulenc, and Previn. With John Finucane she now continues this commitment.