Anna Serova, Croatian RTSO, Nicola Guerini - Boris Pigovat: Holocaust Requiem; Poem of Dawn (2015)

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Anna Serova, Croatian RTSO, Nicola Guerini - Boris Pigovat: Holocaust Requiem; Poem of Dawn (2015)

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A large and increasing body of music and literature offers remembrances of the Holocaust. The challenge such music and literature faces is to be emotionally compelling and fresh without relying upon clichés. The Holocaust Requiem by Boris Pigovat amply succeeds as a commemoration of the Holocaust and as a work of music. Pigovat (b. 1953) was born in Odessa and moved to Israel in 1995. He composed his Holocaust Requiem in 1994-1995, and the work premiered in Kiev in 2001 at a commemoration of the Babi Yar massacres. This recording was my first experience with Pigovat's music.

The Holocaust Requiem is a four-movement work of about 50 minutes with movements titled after movements of the Requiem Mass. The work is purely instrumental with no texts or singers. It is scored for large orchestra and solo viola, with the viola making the most of its character as the most "human" voice of the instruments. Violist Anna Serova offers an emotive and virtuosic performance of this music with the Croatian Radio & Television Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nicola Guerni.

The work is serious and melancholy nearly throughout. The writing for viola and for the orchestra often has a vocal character. The orchestration is full and effective with large roles for strings, percussion, trombone, horn, clarinet and flute. There are long solo sections of lament for the viola, passages for the orchestra, and many passages in which soloist and orchestra collaborate.

The opening movement "Requiem aeternam" begins slowly and sparely and gradually develops to music of great intensity and anger. The viola plays a solo theme which returns at various points in the piece. The second movement "Dies Irae" is full of rage, dissonance and repeated pulsating rhythm. The music becomes quieter and fades away over the course of the movement. The third movement, "Lacrimosa" features a lengthy unaccompanied viola solo with a plaintive singing line. It is punctuated by the orchestra in places, and the orchestra joins in the last few minutes with a singing, commemorative line. The finale "Lux aeterna" has an elegiac character with moments of peace and hope coming to predominate near the conclusion of the piece. The Holocaust Requiem is lovely music for viola and orchestra and a moving, fitting remembrance of the Holocaust.

The CD also includes the premier recording of Pigovat's "Poem of Dawn", a 17-minute work composed in 2010. This work also showcases the beautiful viola playing of Anna Serova, again with the Croatian Radio & Television Symphony Orchestra. In contrast to the Holocaust Requiem, the "Poem of Dawn" is written in a somewhat conventional, late Romantic musical style. It captures the rise of dawn and sunlight on a peaceful day. The work opens with a light texture and gradually swells to a lavish orchestral, lush part welcoming the day. This is a beautifully textured, lyrical work. Its main interest lies in the viola solo and in Serova's lyrical and beautiful performance on her instrument.

The CD was recorded in 2013-2014, and it includes the composer's own edited liner notes. The Holocaust Requiem is a moving effective work of remembrance, and the viola-orchestra performance throughout the CD is compelling.

Review by Robin Friedman

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Anna Serova, Croatian RTSO, Nicola Guerini - Boris Pigovat: Holocaust Requiem; Poem of Dawn (2015)

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Anna Serova, Croatian RTSO, Nicola Guerini - Boris Pigovat: Holocaust Requiem; Poem of Dawn (2015)

Close