Knaifel: Lukomoriye Oleg Malov, Tatiana Melentieva, Piotr Migunov & Lege Artis Choir

• Alexander Knaifel (1943- ):
• 1 O Comforter 05:23
• 2 A Mad Tea-Party 08:13
• 3 Bliss 04:37
• 4 This Child 09:40
• 5 Confession 07:21
• 6 O Lord Of All My Life 16:01
• 7 O Heavenly King 06:52
• 8 Lukomoriye 04:35
• Total Runtime 01:02:42

Info for Knaifel: Lukomoriye

The fourth New Series album from the St Petersburg-based composer Alexander Knaifel may be his most wide-ranging to date, voyaging from the sacred to the secular and back again via several inspired detours. It includes two Prayers to the Holy Spirit, movingly performed by the Lege Artis Choir. Tatiana Melentieva sings Bliss, based on Alexander Pushkin’s poem, and the great Russian poet is cross-referenced with St Ephraim the Syrian in O Lord of All My Life (A Poem and a Prayer) sung by Piotr Migunov. Oleg Malov, who accompanies both singers, is called upon to internalize texts in four further solo piano pieces. A mad tea party lives up to its title, with a surreal Wonderland spirit. This Child (after the Gospel of St Luke), A Confession and title piece Lukomoriye (both after Pushkin) are luminously quiet, and quietly magical.

Oleg Malov, piano
Tatiana Melentieva, soprano
Piotr Migunov, bass
Lege Artis Choir
Boris Abalian, conductor

Alexander Knaifel
was born in 1943 in Tashkent but grew up in St Petersburg. He studied with Rostropovich and his relationship with him remained close until the great cellist’s death. Rostropovich features on Amicta Sole, the second ECM release of Knaifel’s music.

Knaifel was born into a Jewish family, but is also attracted by the Orthodox church and Buddhism; he has spoken of seeking to convey something of the heart of faith by "speaking in a low voice, hoping to hear a voice within oneself”. His music, described by the Frankfurter Rundschau as "one of the most important revelations of recent years", belongs to that circle of near-contemporaries and associates from the former Soviet lands which includes Arvo Pärt, Giya Kancheli, Tigran Mansurian, Valentin Silvestrov and Sofia Gubaidulina. But, although critics have found echoes of Arvo Pärt, John Tavener and Henryck Górecki in Knaifel’s quest for beauty, he has an idiom that is entirely his own, with its own expressive power.

ECM’s documentation of Knaifel’s work began with Svete Tikhiy (recorded 1997 and 2000), featuring the Keller Quartett with pianist Oleg Malov, and the voice of Tatiana Melentieva, the composer’s wife, processed by Andrei Siegle. Then, following Amicta Sole, the 2006 recording Blazhenstva presented two strikingly different compositions, inspirationally linked through the figure of Mstislav Rostropovich and played by his last cello student at the Moscow Conservatory, Ivan Monighetti.

Booklet for Knaifel: Lukomoriye