RESONANCE OF THE PAST

Russian Late Romantic Music for Cello and Piano

 

Artists: ALMATI DUO 

Dmitrij Gornowskij, Cello
Amir Tebenikhin, Piano

 

Total duration: approx. 60 minutes
The duration of the programme can be adapted as needed.

 

 

 

CONCEPT AND PROGRAMME DESCRIPTION

 

This concert brings together two landmark sonatas of Russian late Romanticism – works that emerged at the threshold between two centuries, shaped by both the lush heritage of the 19th century and the aesthetic challenges of modernity. Written by two composers whose paths diverged yet whose expressive worlds remained intertwined, these sonatas offer a profound insight into an era of transition and spiritual complexity.

 

Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Sonata in G minor, Op. 19 (1901) is considered one of the crowning achievements of the Romantic cello repertoire. Expansive in form, rich in texture, and emotionally unguarded, the work unfolds in four movements that reflect a vast inner landscape. Especially the third movement – a Largo of rare lyrical depth – reveals a sense of elegy and vocal purity, forming the emotional centre of the entire sonata.

 

Nikolai Myaskovsky’s Sonata in A minor, Op. 81 (1948), composed decades later under the constraints of Soviet cultural doctrine, draws upon the Romantic tradition while distilling it into a more austere, introverted language. The themes are more angular, the moods more shadowed – yet beneath this lies a quiet intensity and lyrical melancholy that connects deeply with Rachmaninoff’s spirit. It is as though the same inner voice is speaking, but filtered through darker light.

 

Rachmaninoff and Myaskovsky were contemporaries, but their biographies diverged: Rachmaninoff left Russia after the 1917 Revolution and built a life in exile, while Myaskovsky remained in the USSR, becoming a moral and artistic reference point for a younger generation. Their music represents two responses to a shared historical fracture – a longing for the lost world, and the search for a new form of expression within radically changed circumstances.

 

This programme creates a musical dialogue between these two composers – a resonance across decades and ideologies, where memory and imagination meet. It is an echo of a bygone era that still vibrates with urgency and humanity today.

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PROGRAMME OVERVIEW

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Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sonata for Cello and Piano in G minor, Op. 19 [approx. 35 min]

 

Nikolai Myaskovsky
Sonata for Cello and Piano in A minor, Op. 81 [approx. 25 min]

 

The duration of the programme can be adjusted.