#ClassicsaDay #SovietaDay Week 5

For the third year running, the Classics a Day team chose to honor May Day. For the month of May, Soviet musicians are the theme. Last year I posted music by Soviet prize-winners. 

This time, I'm simply walking my way through the alphabet (Latin, not Cyrillic). The music I discovered proved anything but ordinary. Here are my posts for the ffifth and final week of #SovietaDay.

5/27/19 Galina Ustvolskaya (1919-2006) - Piano Concerto

Despite support from her teacher, Shostakovich, her modernist music was seldom performed during the Soviet Era.

5/28/19 Sergei Vasilenko (1872-1956) - In Spring Suite for flute and small orchestra

Vasilenko was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for his services to music, both as a composer and teacher.

5/29/30 Yuri Yukechev (1947 - ) - Two pieces for viola d'amore

Yukechev survived the Soviet Era and writes in an expansive, experimental fashion that would never have been allowed in the USSR.

5/30/19 Valery Zhelobinsky (1913-1946) - Three Pieces for Piano, Op. 27, No. 2 Song

The short-lived pianist and composer left an impressive body of work, including four operas, three piano concerts, and six symphonies. The bulk of his music is for solo piano.

5/31/19 Iosif Andriasov (1933-200) - String Quartet Op. 1

This 1954 student work was dedicated to Andriasov's sister and remains one of his most popular composition.