DA VINCI PUBLISHINGWar and Peace

Additional information

Artist(s)	Alexander Boldachev
Composer(s)	Alexander Boldachev, Dmitri Shostakovich, Georgy Sviridov, Igor Stravinsky, Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, Modest Mussorgsky, Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky, Sergei Slonimsky, Sergej Rachmaninoff, Sergey Prokofiev
Edition	Da Vinci Classics
Format	1 Cd
Genre	Instrumental
Instrumentation	Harp
Period	Contemporary, Modern, Romantic
Publication year	2024

Description

Since leaving Russia in March 2022, Alexander Boldachev has lived abroad, separated from his homeland, family, and lifelong friendships. For over two years, he has yearned for the vast lands where he once shared his music. The injustice and devastation of war have profoundly shaped his work, filling it with sorrow and compassion for the people and culture he left behind. Through his charity association “Cultural Solidarity,” he supports refugees from both sides, while his album War and Peace expresses love, loss, and the realization that our world has forever changed.
War and Peace is an intimate album from Swiss-Russian harpist Alexander Boldachev, weaving a narrative of reflection, heritage, and the pursuit of peace. This personal collection is both a testament to his journey and a reflection of humanity’s shared experiences through agitation and tranquility. The album invites listeners into a reflective space, traversing a landscape of “better days” and the haunting dance of life, death, and the spirits in fields of War. Each piece, from Tchaikovsky’s “Sentimental Valse” to Mussorgsky’s “Great Gate of Kyiv,” evokes a poignant narrative — a yearning for the past, an acknowledgment of present pain, and hope for the future. Alexander’s own composition, “War and Peace,” bridges history and nowadays, reflecting on the cycles of human error and unlearned lessons of history. His arrangements of Rachmaninov, Sviridov, and the most virtuoso: Stravinsky’s “Petrushka,” highlight the harp in a new light, showcasing its expressive range like never before.
More than an album, War and Peace is an emotional archive of human experiences, a call to acknowledge our collective responsibility, and a hopeful ode to the potential for peace that lies within us all. It invites listeners to reflect, unite, and work toward a harmonious future.
Alexander Boldachev © 2024

There is in fact a particular connotation of some musical instruments; some seem to be called to express martial or belligerent feelings, others are marked by an entirely different vocation. This is the case with the harp, one of the oldest instruments in human history, and one which has always been deeply bound to poetry, lyricism (actually, the very idea of lyrical poetry implies the presence of the lyre, an instrument akin to the harp!), enchantment, and also religious feelings (as in the case of the poet-king David of Israel).
This album invites listeners into a contemplative space, traversing a landscape marked by the reminiscence of “better days” and the haunting dance of life, death, and the spirits in Ukraine’s fields. Each piece, from Tchaikovsky’s “Sentimental Valse” to Mussorgsky’s “The Old Castle” and “Great Gate of Kyiv”, is carefully selected to evoke a poignant narrative – a yearning for the past, recognition of the present’s pain, and a hopeful gaze into the future.
Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition were the result of the composer’s visit to an exhibition commemorating a deceased artist, Viktor Hartmann, who had been Mussorgsky’s friend. The pieces constituting the complete cycle are of two different kinds: the “Promenades” (two of which are longer, the others can consist of just a few bars; the two longer ones divide the cycle into two parts, roughly corresponding to two halves), and the “Pictures” proper. These pieces are musical interpretations of Vladimir Hartmann’s paintings, seen through the lens of Mussorgsky’s own personality. In fact, whereas Hartmann was frequently fascinated by architectural elements, Mussorgsky’s attention was rather drawn to the human figures which the painter had added to his sketches and canvases in order to represent proportions. Furthermore, Mussorgsky’s ordering of the “Pictures” and his division of the cycle into two halves is also meaningful. The Promenades represent the musical depiction of Mussorgsky’s himself. The theme is always the same, symbolizing his personality (and his lopsided walk!), whilst the different harmonizations it undergoes throughout the cycle are evidence of the various feelings he experiences, prompted by Hartmann’s various paintings. These feelings are mainly built on contrasts in the cycle’s first part, whilst the second part of the cycle (whence are taken the two other pieces by Mussorgsky, beyond the Promenade, transcribed here) has a metaphysical meaning. First comes The Marketplace of Limoges, where the colours and sounds of the market represent life at its fullest. It is suddenly followed by a pair of joined pieces, symbolizing death and its toll. Baba Yaga intervenes immediately after. She is a witch from the Russian fairytale tradition, but she is a particularly evil and wicked witch. She lives in a hut on chicken’s legs, and she flies in a mortar, eager to catch mortals, her prey. She symbolizes hell, the devil, the evil; but also myth, i.e. the stories through which human beings try and exorcize the anguish of death. When she seems to triumph – and, in fact, Death devours every living being – the last piece begins. Here Hartmann had portrayed a religious procession passing through a majestic Gate; the sounds of sacred music (organs, choirs, bells) are heard. They “resuscitate” the theme of the Promenade, i.e. Mussorgsky’s musical alter ego, which had been “buried” with his deceased friend in Con mortuis in lingua mortua. This concluding piece thus affirms powerfully that there is Life after death, and that not only will art, and all things beautiful, survive to their creators and keep their memory alive, but also that friends will not be separated from each other forever.
This album also comprises works by other great composers from the East. Tchaikovsky represented the complementary viewpoint on music, in comparison with Mussorgsky’s. Whereas the latter, along with the Mighty Five, promoted a “Russian” kind of Russian music (i.e. to explore the folk roots of Russian music and to create or find a truly national idiom), Tchaikovsky looked West and was more interested in the German-inspired musical culture of the era. His Valse sentimentale is the perfect expression of some of his typical traits: his interest in dance and dance-rhythms, his exceptional gift for melody, his quintessentially Romantic soul. He is also represented here by the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from “Nutcracker”: it is one of the numerous episodes where magical characters are evoked by the composer’s fascinating and poetical vein, this time with a touch of childlike enchantment which the harp translates in a particularly poignant fashion.
Other works in this CD represent the harp’s formidable capability to render the full texture of a symphonic score. This happens, for instance, with the delightful Waltz excerpted from Dmitri Shostakovich’s Suite for Variety Orchestra, a composition in which the respected “father” of Soviet music ventured into styles and genres which the regime did not fully approve. Shostakovich underwent persecution during the Stalinist era, but he managed generally to remain within the boundaries of the acceptable; at times he confined his critique of the regime to the language of irony, sarcasm, of the grotesque – these languages are the hardest for totalitarian systems to understand!
The enthralling pace of Shostakovich’s Waltz is matched by the equally memorable Dance of the Knights from Prokofev’s Romeo and Juliet. Here the harp will certainly surprise its listeners: even though, as previously said, its vocation is primarily peaceful, it has no problem when the time comes to show power, energy, vigour, and even heroism.
Another dance, this time by Igor Stravinsky, is the one labelled as “Russian” dance in one of the composer’s best-known ballets, Petrushka. It is such a beloved piece that it entered into the concert hall as the first of the Three Movements of Petrushka, compiled by the composer and written for the piano. Here too the percussive elements of both piano and harp are called for, even though the most remarkable feature of this piece is its colourful and robust thematic element.
In still other pieces of this intriguing album, the harp boldly tackles the piano on the latter’s own ground, challenging its “cousin” with struck strings and demonstrating the harp’s potential for massive sonorities. Sergei Rachmaninov’s Prelude op. 3 no. 2 is one of the best-known pieces in piano literature, and it has become a symbol for the grandiosity of the keyboard. The resonance of the harp’s strings shows that this domain is not only the piano’s, but can be fully shared by the plucked strings.
Other pieces were originally written for the harp, such as the Nocturne by Mikhail Glinka. Here the harp showcases its poetical soul, its expressiveness, the utter sweetness of its sounds. It is an enchanted and enchanting piece which is rightfully counted among the “classics” of the harp repertoire.
The Prelude by Prokofev exists in both an original version for harp, played here, and an original version for the piano; the two instruments seem therefore to “intersect” their paths here. But it is rather evident that the composer’s scoring aims at evoking the harp even on the piano, and is therefore much more idiomatic for the harp than for the piano.
The piece by Sviridov is excerpted from a suite coming in turn from the score for a Soviet movie, directed by Sofiya Milkina and Mikhail Schweitzer in 1965. Soviet composers wrote abundantly for the screen, and there was substantial continuity between their output for the concert hall and for the screen. Different from what was happening in the West, where one would hardly imagine Pierre Boulez or Karlheinz Stockhausen as the composers of film music for blockbusters, in the Soviet Union the likes of Shostakovich and Prokofev usually wrote film music, and this field was the major source of income for dissident musicians such as Schnittke.
Last but not least, the album includes some of the harpist’s own compositions, among which “War and Peace”, which serve as a bridge between the past and the present, reflecting on the cyclical nature of human errors and the unlearned lessons of history.
Chiara Bertoglio © 2024

Artist(s)

Alexander Boldachev
Born in Russia and raised in Switzerland, Alexander Boldachev is a multifaceted artist who has reshaped the perception of the harp in the 21st century. As a Swiss-Russian musician, Alexander defies stereotypes through his innovative approach, crafting unique adventures in each of his concerts. His commitment to bridging generational gaps has established him as a modern ambassador of the harp and music.
Alexander's talent has been recognized with over 20 prestigious awards, including the Kleiner Prix Walo in Switzerland, the Aoyama Prize in Japan, the Akademia Award in the USA, and ProEuropa in the EU. His classical education under the tutelage of Catherine Michel laid the foundation for his mastery of multiple genres, encompassing classical, crossover, rock covers, and neoclassical music. This versatility has seen him perform at world-renowned venues such as the Bolshoi Theater, Carnegie Hall, and Theater Colon, as well as at eclectic events like Burning Man and the FIFA World Cup Opening.
A prolific composer, Alexander's creativity extends beyond the stage. His works include film and theater scores, orchestral compositions, electronic music, and countless arrangements and covers, many of which are available on streaming platforms. His distinctive style seamlessly blends tradition with innovation, capturing the essence of his passion for the harp.
In addition to his performing career, Alexander is dedicated to nurturing the next generation of musicians. He serves as a guest professor at the Royal Academy of Music and the Conservatory of Milano, and has been invited to teach at esteemed institutions such as Juilliard, MSM, Liszt Academy, and conservatories in Toronto, Beijing, Moscow, São Paulo, and Buenos Aires. His role as a jury member of the International Harp Contest in Israel and as an Artist-in-Residence at UCLA for composition underscores his influence in the academic world.
Alexander's open-minded approach to collaboration has led him to work with a diverse array of instruments, singers, and choreographers. His organizational efforts have given rise to projects like the Harp Festival Zürich and World Harp Day, which celebrate the instrument's beauty and versatility. Beyond his artistic endeavors, Alexander is a committed humanitarian. He has taken a clear anti-war stance and founded LYUDY: Cultural Solidarity in Zürich, a society dedicated to aiding refugees and organizing charitable actions both in Switzerland and globally.
In every facet of his career, Alexander Boldachev exemplifies a harmonious blend of artistry, innovation, and compassion, continually expanding the horizons of what the harp can achieve.

Composer(s)

Dmitri Shostakovich: (b St Petersburg, 12/25 Sept 1906; d Moscow, 9 Aug 1975). Russian composer. He is generally regarded as the greatest symphonist of the mid-20th century, and many of his string quartets, concertos, instrumental and vocal works are also firmly established in the repertory. His numerous film scores, extensive incidental theatre music and three ballets are of more variable quality. In 1936, political intervention cut short his potentially outstanding operatic output; such interference continued to blight his career, belying the outward signs of official favour and recognition that increasingly came his way. Amid the conflicting pressures of official requirements, the mass suffering of his fellow countrymen, and his personal ideals of humanitarianism and public service, he succeeded in forging a musical language of colossal emotional power. The music of his middle period is often epic in scale and content; it has been understood by many Russians, and in more recent years also by Westerners, as chronicling his society and times, conveying moods and, as some would argue, experiences and even political messages in notes, at a time when to do so in words was proscribed. Since the appearance in 1979 of his purported memoirs, which expressed profound disaffection from the Soviet regime, his works have been intensely scrutinized for evidence of such explicit communication. However, his intentions in this respect continue to provoke disagreement, not least because of the problematic status of the sources involved. He published articles and made speeches under varying degrees of duress; for much of his life his correspondence was liable to be read by censors; he destroyed almost all letters sent to him; he kept no diary; and his reported confidences to friends and family are of varying reliability. Meanwhile, the musical dimensions of his works remain comparatively little examined. He played a decisive role in the musical life of the former Soviet Union, as teacher, writer and administrator. He was also an active pianist, frequently performing his own works until disability prevented him. His last concert appearance was in 1966

Georgy Vasil'yevich Sviridov
(b Fatezh, Kursk Province, 3/16 Dec 1915; d Moscow, 6 Jan 1998). Russian composer, pianist, musical and public figure. After his initial education at the music school in Kursk (1929–32), he studied composition under M.A. Yudin, and piano under Isay Braudo at the Central Music Tekhnikum in Leningrad (1932–6), later transferring to the Leningrad Conservatory (1936–41) where his teachers were Ryazanov and Shostakovich. Sviridov is one of the most significant figures in Russian music of the second half of the 20th century and one of the most popular composers of concert works in post-World War II Russia. His consistent striving towards a distinctively Russian style has made him the leader of a new nationalist movement in his country.

Igor Stravinsky: (b Oranienbaum [now Lomonosov], nr St Petersburg, 5/17 June 1882; d New York, 6 April 1971). Russian composer, later of French (1934) and American (1945) nationality. One of the most widely performed and influential composers of the 20th century, he remains also one of its most multi-faceted. A study of his work automatically touches on almost every important tendency in the century’s music, from the neo-nationalism of the early ballets, through the more abrasive, experimental nationalism of the World War I years, the neo-classicism of the period 1920–51 and the studies of old music which underlay the proto-serial works of the 1950s, to the highly personal interpretation of serial method in his final decade. To some extent the mobile geography of his life is reflected in his work, with its complex patterns of influence and allusion. In another sense, however, he never lost contact with his Russian origins and, even after he ceased to compose with recognizably Russian materials or in a perceptibly Slavonic idiom, his music maintained an unbroken continuity of technique and thought.

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (b Novospasskoye, nr Yelnya, Smolensk district, 20 May/1 June 1804; d Berlin, 15 Feb 1857). Russian composer. He was the first Russian composer to combine distinction in speaking the musical idiom of the day with a personal and strongly original voice. Emerging from the background of a provincial dilettante, though with generous access to local music-making opportunties, he made himself at home in metropolitan centres and mastered the procedures of Italian and French opera, and complemented that expertise with skill in motivic and contrapuntal working as well as instrumentation. His compositions, especially the operas A Life for the Tsar and Ruslan and Lyudmila and the orchestral fantasia Kamarinskaya, represent cornerstones of what are known as the ‘Russian classics’, and furnished models for later 19th-century composers.

Modest Musorgsky (b Karevo, Pskov district, 9/21 March 1839; d St Petersburg, 16/28 March 1881). Russian composer. His life was disjointed, ending in loneliness and poverty, and at the time of his death some of his most important compositions were left unfinished. His greatest achievements were as a composer of operas and solo songs. Largely self-taught and highly intellectual, he discovered a way of writing for the voice that was both lyrical and true to the inflections of speech. He was the most strikingly individual Russian composer of the later 19th century and an avatar of modernism for the generation of Debussy and Ravel.

Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky: (b Kamsko-Votkinsk, Vyatka province, 25 April/7 May 1840; d St Petersburg, 25 Oct/6 Nov 1893). Russian composer. He was the first composer of a new Russian type, fully professional, who firmly assimilated traditions of Western European symphonic mastery; in a deeply original, personal and national style he united the symphonic thought of Beethoven and Schumann with the work of Glinka, and transformed Liszt’s and Berlioz’s achievements in depictive-programmatic music into matters of Shakespearian elevation and psychological import (Boris Asaf’yev).

Sergey Mikhaylovich Slonimsky
(b Leningrad, 12 Aug 1932). Russian composer, pianist and teacher. The son of the writer M.L. Slonimsky and a relative of the composer and musicologist Nicholas Slonimsky, he began to study composition at the age of 11, with Shebalin. From 1945 to 1950 he attended a special music school for gifted children, where he was taught the piano by S. Savshinsky and composition by Arapov and Vol'fenzon. In 1955 he graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory in Yevlakhov’s composition class, and in 1956 in V. Nil'sen’s piano class. In 1958 he completed a postgraduate course on the theory of music, instructed by Ter-Martirosian. Since 1959 he taught music-theoretical disciplines, and since 1967 composition, at the Leningrad Conservatory. He has taken part more than once in folkloristic expeditions, and has recorded Russian folksongs. He is a Candidate of Arts (1963, for his dissertation on Prokofiev’s symphonies), professor (1976), laureate of the State M. Glinka Prize (1983) and People’s Artist of Russia (1987). He runs musical gatherings devoted to the popularization of Russian 20th-century music (especially from the 1920s). He is a member of the Composers’ Union.

Slonimsky belongs to the generation who came into being as composers after World War II. Since the middle of the 1950s he has been interested in the musical avant garde and in a decisive stylistic renewal. Among his first works, which attracted attention by their use of non-traditional media, were the Karneval'naya uvertyura (‘Carnival Overture’, 1957) and the F minor Symphony (1958). Not uninfluenced by Stravinsky’s folklorism, he became one of the pioneers of the ‘new folklore wave’ at the beginning of the 1960s, with his vocal cycle Pesni vol'nitsï (‘Songs of the Runaway Serfs’, 1960) and his opera Virineya (1967). He subsequently gravitated more towards archaic folk materials, towards medieval music and also the avant garde; these apparently contradictory tendencies may be seen in various compositions, both in parallel and separately (Kontsert-buff (‘Concerto-Buffo’, 1964–5) the cantata Golos iz khora (‘A Voice from the Choir’, 1964) and others).

Sergey Rachmaninov: (b Oneg, 20 March/1 April 1873; d Beverly Hills, CA, 28 March 1943). Russian composer, pianist and conductor. He was one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, the last great representative of Russian late Romanticism. The influences of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and other Russian composers soon gave way to a thoroughly personal idiom, with a pronounced lyrical quality, expressive breadth, structural ingenuity and a palette of rich, distinctive orchestral colours.

Sergey Prokofiev (b Sontsovka, Bakhmutsk region, Yekaterinoslav district, Ukraine, 11/23 April 1891; d Moscow, 5 March 1953). Russian composer and pianist. He began his career as a composer while still a student, and so had a deep investment in Russian Romantic traditions – even if he was pushing those traditions to a point of exacerbation and caricature – before he began to encounter, and contribute to, various kinds of modernism in the second decade of the new century. Like many artists, he left his country directly after the October Revolution; he was the only composer to return, nearly 20 years later. His inner traditionalism, coupled with the neo-classicism he had helped invent, now made it possible for him to play a leading role in Soviet culture, to whose demands for political engagement, utility and simplicity he responded with prodigious creative energy. In his last years, however, official encouragement turned into persecution, and his musical voice understandably faltered.