January 25, 2019

  • Stas Namin Creates Massive Symphony

     

    Namin: Centuria S-Quark Symphony
    London Symphony Orchestra/Lee Reynolds
    Navona Records 6200
    Total Time:  47:04
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    Perhaps one of Navona’s more ambitious recordings yet, the 2016 recording of this massive symphony begun in 2014 by Russian composer Stas Namin (1951).  Namin is better known as a Russian rock musician and lead for the band The Flowers (begun in 1969).  He has gone on to a number of artistic endeavors among which is creating symphonic works.  Contact with a host of Russian musicians and performers shaped his childhood.  Later he received additional support about his compositions with composer Georgy Sviridov, Frank Zappa, and Alfred Schnittke.  All who took an interest in his ideas with many musical discussions.

    Centuria S-Quark Symphony takes some of its inception to concepts in astrophysics of microparticles (strange quark).  This combined with the idea of music possibly serving to think about the future and mankind’s place in it.  It is a philosophical work as well in its trying to foresee what different threads may bring as they come together and explore the circle of life itself.  The piece is cast in one long movement.  There are a variety of thematic ideas that float across the musical landscape.  Often the harmonies have an almost jazz-like quality to their punctuations against the florid lines that skitter about the texture.  The tonal language stays fairly traditional, but has plenty of harsher dissonance on its edges to add to the intensity of emotion.  Sometimes the music may seem almost filmic with rapid shifts that dissolve from one emotional sensibility to another.  This can seem somewhat episodic but tends to be more like someone wandering through time and picking up on different threads of thought along the way.  All of these ideas will come crashing together later in the finale where one might consider them an aural cacophony of ideas swirling in the brain all at once.

    The music tends to move toward rather unusual harmonic shifts and arrival points.  The melodies are also fairly engaging with moments that can seem melodramatic at times.  These ideas sometimes strive across the orchestra for dominance as the work progresses.  The work calls for a fairly large orchestra with prominent piano sections integrated into the texture.  Alexander Slizunov is credited with the arrangements.  When all is said and done, Nasmin’s work is an often compelling piece with engaging thematic ideas that is like hearing a blend of Messiaen and Daugherty that moves to an Ivesian intensity at times.  In that respect it is often quite compelling music though some will find much of it almost random in its presentation of ideas.  The way these interconnect will likely become more apparent with repetition though.  All said, an intriguing, accessible work.