Anthology of Piano Music by Russian and Soviet Composers, Volume 6

DMITRI KABALEVSKY (1904-1987): Rondo (Nikita Mndoyants), BORIS ARAPOV (1905-1992): Sonata No. 2 (Mikhail Turpanov), YURI NIKOLAYEV (1921-2003): Rondino (Tatiana Dorokhova), ALEMDAR KARAMANOV (1934-2007): Variations (Irina Bodganova), MIROSLAV SKORYK (b.1938): Burlesque, BORIS TISHCHENKO (1939-2010): Sonata No. 4 (both Asiya Korepanova).

Description: After a volume of mostly atonal, modern material, this series moves back to melody, consonance and rhythm. You know the Kabalevsky; Nikolayev's Rondino (1960) is supposedly inspired by Uzbek folklore but sounds Debussian Impressionistic; Karamanov's Variations (1962) range from Scriabin to Rachmaninov; Skorik's 1963 Burlesque is the most memorable of the short pieces, insistently rhythmic like a Prokofiev toccata but with elements of folk music. Tishchenko's 1972 sonata is a bright and energetic piece which comes between his much more serious Third and Fifth sonatas and Arapov's ten-minute, single-movement sonata (1976) develops its own metamorphosis technique of continuous thematic development.