INDEX1/TEXTS/GALLERY/CDS/MUSIC/ELENA/DMITRI/PHILIP/ALISSA/FRIENDS/HOME1/HOME2/HOME3 “Classical Music” Magazine 22 April 1995
Series Editor: Terry Barfoot, The Repertoire Guide, p.25Edison Denisov - Composer of Light
by Dmitri SmirnovNamed after the inventor of the light bulb, Edison Denisov writes music, which seems to radiate light. A recent accident threatened to end his career, but Denisov is now on the road to recovery, with the promise of a brilliant creative future
The idea of light runs through the entire work of Edison Denisov. Even the titles of his compositions are shining, beaming, evoking the colours of the rainbow: La vie en rouge, Signes en blanc, Aquarelle, On the fire of snow, Light and shadows, Christmas star, Reflections, Beams of distant star in the curved space.
Denisov’s music is scored to capture different qualities of light: flutes and violins, high trumpets and clarinets, glockenspiel, bells, celesta, harp, and omnipotent vibraphone all combine, sometimes in unison as a single beaming timbre, or sometimes scattered to create dazzling splinters and glimmering spectrum of sound. Often his works close in a very high register with the gradual fading of sound, like light extinguished to darkness.
“The concept of light has to be in music”, says Denisov. For Denisov, light is on one hand a physical quality, which makes his compositions lucid, clear in purpose and beautiful in form. On the other hand, Denisov also recognises a spiritual light, which enriches the soul and brings out the best in human character. This concept is expressed most clearly in his Requiem (1980) based on a poem by Francisco Tanzer along with various liturgical texts. Five movements present to the listener the whole human life as a chain of variations: birth, childhood, love, family and death. At the beginning the newborn chills opens his eyes for the first time to see “Licht, light, la lumiere”. He smiles, listening the impassioned appeal: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life”. At the end, the man closes his eyes for the last time hearing the parting words: “Lux aeterna luceat eis”.
The melodic structure of this music is based on the short series: E-D-Es (Es=E flat), the musical monogram of the name of the composer (EdiSon DEniSov). This is the pet sound combination underlining almost all Denisov’s late works. Requiem has been performed in Hamburg, Leningrad, Moscow, Riga, Düsseldorf, Paris and Helsinki. It is a pity that this remarkable work, which represents Denisov at the height of his creative powers, is still unperformed in Britain.
The inventor of the electric light-bulb Thomas Edison, was still alive, when on 6 April 1929 in the Siberian town of Tomsk, Denisov was born. Denisov’s father, an eminent radio-physicist, gave the boy the very unusual first name Edison, in honour of the great American inventor. Edison Denisov was first joined a music school, where he studied piano and then went on to university as a mathematician. On the advice of Shostakovich, who discovered in Denisov a gift for composing, he went to the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied under Vissarion Shebalin. After graduating in 1956, he began his own study of scores, which were difficult to obtain in the USSR at that time, including music ranging from Mahler and Debussy to Boulez and Stockhausen. He wrote a series of articles giving a detailed analysis of different aspects of contemporary compositional techniques and at same time actively experimented as a composer trying to find his own way.
The most successful result of this early experimentation was Soleil des Incas (1964) for soprano and 11 instruments, based on poems by Gabriela Mistral. After the triumphant performances in Leningrad, Moscow, Darmstadt and Paris, Denisov obtained the international recognition, but was severely criticised by the Soviet Officials. Colleagues holding power in the Union of Composers were envious of his success and wrote of “the composer’s absolute arbitrariness” and the “absence of any real creative gift, imitating the western avant-garde”.
An even more difficult time for Denisov began after the publication in 1966 of his article “The new technique is not a fashion”, in which he expressed ideas, which challenged the musical orthodoxy of the time. The Moscow Conservatory threatened to sack him as a teacher of instrumentation and to drive him out of the Union of Composers. What is more, performances and publications of his music were banned.
All this did not silence Denisov. In going against the grain, he discovered new creative impulses within himself. He wrote a series of beautiful compositions: Italian Songs (1964), Crescendo e Diminuendo (1965), Les Pleurs (1966), Romantic Music, Ode (both 1968), D-S-C-H (1969), Peinture (1970), Piano Trio (1971), Cello Concerto (1972), Piano Concerto (1974), Flute Concerto (1975). In spite of the bans, his music continued to be successfully performed in unofficial semi-underground concerts. His scores penetrated the west and were played by leading musicians such as Leonard Bernstein, Bruno Maderna, Pierre Boulez and Daniel Barenboim.
In Denisov’s Violin Concerto (1977) are embodied the many strivings these difficult years in the late sixties and early seventies. This two-movement composition is built on the striking contrast between the violent impetuous Allegro and the fragrant, poetical Adagio with the very delicate and appropriate quotation from a Schubert song. Next, Denisov wrote a series of large scale Theatrical compositions – the opera L’ecume des jours (1981) premiered at the Opera des Paris; the ballet Confession (1984); and a chamber opera Four-Girls (1986) taking its inspiration from Picasso.
In the subjects of both operas, Denisov was attracted by the unusual combination of romantic lyricism with notions of absurdity. The same combination can be found in Blue Notebook (1984) for soprano, narrator and chamber ensemble. Other important compositions from this period include Death is a long Sleep (1982) for cello and orchestra, Three pictures by Paul Klee (1985) for chamber ensemble, a Viola Concerto (1986) and Symphony (1987).
In recent years, Denisov has become more fascinated with liturgical genres. Examples include O Gladsome Light (1988) for a capella chorus, Three Fragments from the New Testament (1989) written for the Hilliard ensemble, Kyrie (1991) in memory of Mozart, and a large oratory The Story of the Life and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ (1992) premiered in September 1994 in Frankfurt. Unfortunately the composer could not attend that performance. During the summer, the musical world received terrible news: early in July near Moscow, Denisov was involved in a serious car accident in which he was very badly injured. After numerous operations, his condition hardly improved. Then the French Government came to his aid: an Austrian military plain took him to Paris where in the military hospital he was treated by leading specialists. By December 1994 he was able to move unassisted and he set to work on a few short compositions.
“I’m doing it just so that my hand does not forget the way to write notes”, Denisov told me on the telephone. By 12 January 1995 he had already finished his Double Concerto for flute and harp with orchestra. On 19 January he was able to attend the world premiere in Düsseldorf of his Morgentraum (1995) a cantata on a poem by Rosa Ausslender. He is now looking forward to the time, when he will be able return to Moscow to resume his normal and creative life.
Music by Edison Denisov is available through Boosey & Hawkes, 295 Regent Street London W1R 8JH. Tel. 020 7580 2060
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