Home music producers now have access to a wide variety of software synthesizers, samplers, and FX devices on their computers -- devices that had previously been available only in expensive hardware forms. Although computer musicians often show a high degree of skill and expertise with the technology they use to produce their music, many mistakenly assume that this is all they need to produce quality tracks. Yet there is often a vital ingredient missing: a useful knowledge of the way the language of music actually works -- an understanding of the ingredients of music and how they are put together; what scales, chords, modes, and keys are; and the principles of arrangement, melody, and harmony.

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And here we have another winner in BIS's magnificent series of the symphonies and piano concertos of Alexander Tcherepnin. The music is marvelous, and the performances very good. To start with the two purely orchestral works, the Symphonic Prayer and the Magna mater are stylistically similar yet imaginative and written in a rather personal idiom. Both are based on chorale harmonies, but the music is nevertheless overall full of energy. No, there are no immediately memorable themes here, but both works are of the kind where you immediately appreciate every move and magnificently wrought detail....... G.D @ Amazon.com

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...An exceptionally interesting chamber music record that allows a dynamic and original young musician to produce himself in very elegant company indeed!

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Sonata for Violoncello and Piano No. 2 op. 63 (1959): The famous cellist Mstislav Rostropovich became acquainted with Weinberg through the agency of Shostakovich, who wrote his First Cello Concerto for this much sought-after artist in 1959. Weinberg’s Second Cello Sonata, written at the same time, may have been a response to Shostakovich’s piece, although he always stressed his artistic independence from the elder master. Rather, these two figures were connected by a fruitful dialogue. They showed each other their new works for appraisal and drew mutual inspiration from each other.....

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The works on this disc comprise Sofia Gubaïdulina's complete solo piano output. They come from her early mature period in the sixties and seventies, yet they pre-date her international rise to prominence that occurred in the eighties and nineties. Though they lack the unusual instrumental disposition Gubaïdulina often revels in, these piano works bear all the hallmarks of spiky rhythm and harmony, unusual instrumental colouring, and hardy Russian poeticism, that are so richly apparent in her other music.

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This four-disc set provides listeners with a fantastic introduction to the Romantic piano quintet, showcasing lesser-known gems of the genre, alongside a few more recognisable offerings.

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Albert Roussel (1869–1937) was ideally placed to develop a unique musical style. His background was more colourful than most of his fellow composers (he initially studied mathematics and worked as a naval officer before devoting himself to music), while his early years as a composer saw him exposed to a barrage of rich but conflicting musical influences: the impressionist movement (spearheaded by Debussy) and the more traditional approach of the Schola Cantorum (championed by d’Indy and Franck).

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Pianist Anthony Goldstone continues his survey of Russian piano literature for Divine Art in Russian Piano Music, Vol. 3: Reinhold Glière. Glière is best known outside of Russia for his "Russian Sailors Dance" from the ballet The Red Poppy; deeper listeners know him through his huge third symphony "Il'ya Murometz." Glière was one of the shining lights of the Soviet period, a composer born one year behind Rachmaninov who had never left, submerged fully in the language ....... Uncle Dave Lewis @ AllMusic

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It may seem unlikely that Nikolai Roslavets would have consciously composed works in imitation of Alexander Scriabin, so that both composers would have pieces that could be matched up, title for title, as they are on this album by pianist Anya Alexeyev. But once one hears the music, the influence of Scriabin is obvious and omnipresent, so such a gesture on Roslavets' part as naming and numbering his pieces after Scriabin's doesn't seem farfetched. Roslavets' Two Poems, Five Preludes, and Three Etudes correspond to the identically named Scriabin works, which are paired here, and ....... Blair Sanderson @ Allmusic

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