Rosenblatt, Alexander : Kamarinskaya
Work Overview
Composition Year:1994
Instrumentation:Piano Ensemble
Genre:fantasy
Commentary (1)
Author : Kato, Reiko
Last Updated: January 1, 2010
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Author : Kato, Reiko
This work marked the inauguration of the piano duo with Oleg Sinkin, led by Rosenblatt under the name 'Modern Piano Duo'. The original version was composed for orchestra in 1991. Prior to the composition of this two-piano arrangement, in the 1980s, Rosenblatt himself performed his own 'Variations on a Theme by Paganini' and 'Piano Sonata' in solo recitals. However, at the same time, he felt a certain dissatisfaction with such activities. It was then that his close friend, Oleg Sinkin, advised him, 'Since you have the Kamarinskaya Fantasy for orchestra, why not arrange it for two pianos?' Subsequently, for his first CD production, Rosenblatt realized the recording of this piece with Oleg Sinkin as a piano duo. They were an ideal duo, both sharing the same worldview, sense of time, and way of perceiving things. This is said to have been the catalyst for today's 'MPD (Modern Piano Duo)'. This piece utilizes the same theme as Mikhail Glinka's (Russian composer) 'Kamarinskaya', and incorporates Rosenblatt's unique idiom, which develops in a jazz-like manner.