Polovtsian Fantasy

Polovtsian Fantasy for piano, strings and percussion instruments by Alexander Rosenblatt (1956) takes us to a completely different orbit of the art of composing "on a theme". "I have a special fondness for writing on foreign themes," says the Russian artist in an interview. "My first attempt was with jazz variations on a theme from Paganini. When my musician friends heard about the concept, they told me I had gone mad, but the premiere demonstrated the opposite – the audience stood on their feet and with enraptured cries applauded the piece and the performance. As a friend of mine used to say: "There is no one to have done more harm to foreign classical music than Rosenblatt." The composer also boasts a long list of variations, fantasies, and suites written on themes by Bizet, Chopin, Mussorgsky, Wagner, Borodin, and Tchaikovsky, and he also wrote chamber music, concertos, ballets, and in recent years composed a Violin Concerto, dedicated to Leopold Mozart; the musical episode Kashtanka for a narrator and orchestra based on Chekhov's famous eponymous story; Jazz-Rococo variations for cello and orchestra; Fantasy-Humoresque; Verdi meets Rossini, etc.) "Of course, working with someone else's material is sheer impudence and a risky affair," says Rosenblatt. "I do not like [the kind of] modern music, where they tear the strings and smash the musical instruments. I quickly tire of it and for the most part it does not bring gladness to me. I like music that has harmonious structure, something that I am under the impression is not allowed now in conservatories." Moscow-born Alexander Rosenblatt comes from a family of musicians. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatoire in piano (the class of Pavel Messner) and composition (the class of Karen Khachaturian). He is the first student to graduate with a diploma thesis devoted to jazz – Piano Jazz Performance in the USA between 1940-1960. From 1983 to 1990, he taught at the jazz faculty of the Gnesins Russian Academy of Music in Moscow (music history, jazz ensembles, jazz harmony and jazz orchestration). Currently a freelance pianist and composer, Rosenblatt also performed as a soloist and in a piano duo with Oleg Sinkin or Nikolay Tokaryev. He has worked with world-renowned musicians and ensembles whose compositions are in performance all over the world.