For the 90th anniversary of the outstanding Russian composer, Firma Melodiya, for the first time ever, releases a unique phonographic document – a broadcast recording of Edison Denisov’s recital, the first one in the former USSR, which took place at the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory on 6 February 1990.

Edison Denisov walked a long way to fame in his own country. In the postwar years, the young mathematics student, who decided to devote himself to composition, ventured to send his works to Dmitri Shostakovich and received a detailed analysis in response with recognition of an outstanding talent. Later on, after graduation from the Moscow Conservatory, Denisov formed his composing style during the “thaw” period and made himself known as an undisputed leader of Soviet avant-garde music. His compositions were performed in Germany and France but had to face a tacit ban in his home country – Denisov’s name was in the so-called “Khrennikov’s Seven”, that is seven composers whose music was declared alien to the Soviet ideology. As late as on the threshold of his sixtieth anniversary, Denisov’s music began to sound at the Russian concert venues, and it did sound bright, extraordinary and desired. It still does thirty years later...

The day of the recital was a milestone not only for composer’s career – it was a truly epochal event in the concert life of this country. In the new era of “glasnost” and “perestroika”, a new page was turned in the history of Russian music. Gennady Rozhdestvensky, a truly genius interpreter of contemporary domestic music, conducted the Symphony Orchestra of the USSR Ministry of Culture. His performances of Prokofiev’s, Shostakovich’s, Shchedrin’s and Schnittke’s music had become benchmarks. From the first years of his conducting career, the maestro made Denisov’s works a part of his repertoire. “It was one of the biggest and most joyful days for me because the performance was truly flawless and inspired”, the composer recalled.

Under the baton of Gennady Rozhdestvensky, the composer’s most significant symphonic works of the 1970s and 1980s, including Painting for orchestra (1970), the tragic Concerto for flute and orchestra (1975, written after the news of Shostakovich’s death) and Symphony no.1 (1987), were performed at the concert.

The Melodiya set also includes the composer’s introductory remarks (or, rather, his conversations with Gennady Rozhdestvensky) and a fragment of a rehearsal before the concert.