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Symphonies Nos. 3 & 6

This CD is part of a late-'90s series under the collective title Musica Non Grata ("Undesirable Music") featuring pieces drawn from the archives of the Russian Melodiya record label by composers who had variously been "threatened, vilified, reviled and reduced to silence or, at best, grudgingly tolerated" by the Soviet regime. It brings together two of the eight symphonies written by the Armenian composer Alfred "Avet" Terteryan (or Terterian). This wasn't an easy item to find, and I ended up paying £20 for a used copy via ebay earlier this year.

Symphony No. 3 (1975) is written for a large symphony orchestra augmented by the duduk and zurna, (traditional Armenian woodwind instruments). It's cast in three movements, and peformed here by the Armenian SSR State Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Khandjan. Terteryan was evidently partial to wide dynamic contrasts, alternating & juxtaposing judderingly loud percussion, strident woodwinds and blaring brass with periods of near-silence. There is no melody to speak of. It is apparently informed by spiritual concerns, without having any specific religious affiliation.

It's an impressive work, but there are other, more readily-available recordings - the main draw here for me was the longer and more elusive Symphony No. 6 (1981). This, unusually, is written for a chamber orchestra and choir augmented by nine "phonograms", these being specially pre-recorded parts performed by various sections of a larger orchestra and choir, and played from tapes at various points during a performance. According to Sigrid Neef's booklet notes, Terteryan conceived the work as a kind of ecumenical requiem, "striving to embody the idea of eternal recollection".

The performers here are the USSR Ministry of Culture Chamber Choir and the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra Soloists Ensemble, directed by Valery Polyansky and Alexander Lazarev respectively. Again, melody is absent, and there is little even in the way of pitch variation, yet the wealth of textures & timbres (and, again, the dynamic contrasts) suffice to make it mesmerising.

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