Pranav Ranjit | Arthur Lourié - Concerto Spirituale for piano, chorus and orchestra (Score Video) @towardthesea_ | Uploaded February 2023 | Updated October 2024, 5 hours ago.
Viktoria Postnikova, piano
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky (recording of 1995 concert)
Arthur Lourié (1892-1966) was a Russian composer who later lived in France and the US. To the extent that he is remembered today, Lourié is mostly known for his association with Igor Stravinsky during the latter's neoclassical period; however, Lourié wrote brilliant and visionary music in his own right. His inventive early works foreshadowed later 20th-century developments like atonality, microtonality, and unconventional notation, and the highly original orchestral and chamber music from his own neoclassical phase is equally compelling. For more on Lourié, see my blog post: unknowncomposers.org/2019/09/08/arthur-lourie-stravinskys-predecessor-and-a-forgotten-pioneer-of-russian-modernism
In my view, the "Concerto spirituale" of 1929, thought to have influenced Stravinsky's "Symphony of Psalms" of the following year, is not only Lourié's most accomplished work but also one of the most original and striking pieces of the 20th century. Written for the unusual and demanding instrumentation of solo piano, three choirs, brass, double bass, timpani and organ, it begins with a simple harmonization of a Gregorian chant but soon migrates into a sound world of its own. A particular highlight is the solo piano cadenza that begins around 16 minutes, one of the most fascinating and ethereal passages I know of for the instrument.
The recording I have used here is the only one known to exist; it is a tragedy that not a single commercial recording of this titanic work has been produced. Despite instrumentational challenges and the difficulty of Lourié's writing for many instruments, there are orchestras and choirs with the resources to perform the "Concerto spirituale", and I hope one of them will record it one day as well.
Viktoria Postnikova, piano
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky (recording of 1995 concert)
Arthur Lourié (1892-1966) was a Russian composer who later lived in France and the US. To the extent that he is remembered today, Lourié is mostly known for his association with Igor Stravinsky during the latter's neoclassical period; however, Lourié wrote brilliant and visionary music in his own right. His inventive early works foreshadowed later 20th-century developments like atonality, microtonality, and unconventional notation, and the highly original orchestral and chamber music from his own neoclassical phase is equally compelling. For more on Lourié, see my blog post: unknowncomposers.org/2019/09/08/arthur-lourie-stravinskys-predecessor-and-a-forgotten-pioneer-of-russian-modernism
In my view, the "Concerto spirituale" of 1929, thought to have influenced Stravinsky's "Symphony of Psalms" of the following year, is not only Lourié's most accomplished work but also one of the most original and striking pieces of the 20th century. Written for the unusual and demanding instrumentation of solo piano, three choirs, brass, double bass, timpani and organ, it begins with a simple harmonization of a Gregorian chant but soon migrates into a sound world of its own. A particular highlight is the solo piano cadenza that begins around 16 minutes, one of the most fascinating and ethereal passages I know of for the instrument.
The recording I have used here is the only one known to exist; it is a tragedy that not a single commercial recording of this titanic work has been produced. Despite instrumentational challenges and the difficulty of Lourié's writing for many instruments, there are orchestras and choirs with the resources to perform the "Concerto spirituale", and I hope one of them will record it one day as well.
