HERMAN GALYNIN (1922-1966): Scherzo and Aria for Violin and String Orchestra, Suite for String Orchestra, String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2.

Description: The intensity with which this Russian composer lived his short life is reflected in the extraordinarily high voltage of his music. In spite of a difficult start in life – he was an orphan – his instinctive musicality combined with the impulsiveness of his personality to make him one of the best known of Soviet composers while he was a student. Although mental illness put an early end to his meteoric career, the wild, freewheeling energy of his compositions – as witness these five works for strings – leave little doubt that Galynin would have been one of the major musical voices of the second half of the twentieth century; as it is, what he did achieve is remarkable. Anastasia Latysheva (violin), Academy of Russian Music; Ivan Nikforchin.