In December 1917, Sergei Rachmaninov had to flee Moscow in haste, never to
return again. Some sixty years later, the composers Elena Firsova and Dmitri
Smirnov found themselves
blacklisted in Russia (alongside five other composers, including Sofia
Gubaidulina); after a difficult decade, and just before the fall of the Soviet
Union, they finally left Russia – doing so, like Rachmaninov, with just a
couple of suitcases and their two
young children in tow. Heading to Great Britain, and on arrival there
moving lodgings no fewer than thirteen times, they finally settled in
the UK.
One of those youngsters was Alissa Firsova, who has since risen to become one
of the UK’s brightest stars of the new composing generation. An equally
talented pianist,
on this, her début solo disc, she performs Rachmaninov’s rarely-heard
original 1913 version of his
Second Piano Sonata (several minutes longer, and containing many more notes,
than the version more normally heard) and the
Variations on a Theme of Corelli, together with music by her father (Dmitri
Smirnov’s
Blake Sonata), her mother (Elena Firsova’s For Alissa) and Alissa’s own
Lune Rouge.
The release of this disc coincides with Alissa Firsova’s new orchestral
commission for the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, which will be given its world
premiere under
the baton of Andrew Litton at the BBC Proms on 27 August 2015.
Extensive presentation includes 32 page booklet with insightful liner note
in three languages (English, French & German), together with copies of
manuscripts and session
photographs.