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     Andrei Chulovsky was born in Omsk, where he attended music school (class of O. Semyonova - pupil of the famous Esipova).  Upon finishing the music school and college he entered the Leningrad Conservatory (piano class of Professor N. Perelman).  After graduation from the Conservatory in 1978, he started working as a soloist at the philharmonic society of Omsk and also as a teacher at the college.
     When in 1983 they mounted the first organ in Omsk, A. Chulovsky again entered the conservatory - this time in Riga.  Since 1987, he perfects his skill at the Moscow Conservatory, combining lessons with successful concert activities.
     In Rodion Shchedrin's vast heritage, works for piano occupy an important place - three concertos, a sonata, twenty-four preludes and fugues, and separate pieces: "Album for the Youth" and "Polyphonic Notebook" (Twenty-Five Polyphonic Preludes) created in 1972.  The author's premiere took place on March 31, 1973 in the Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.  Since that time the cycle makes up pianists' repertoire and can be often heard in concert programs.
     This cd features the cycle arranged for organ by A. Chulovsky.
     Polyphony in Shchedrin's art not only touches upon classically clear counter-point of equal participants, but also becomes a leading principal of dramaturgy: image sphere, multifariousness of time and space, inside and outside worlds, confrontations and inclinations, and a painful search for the truth.
     Polyphonic Notebook evokes the analogy with J. S. Bach's inventions where the composer uses almost all the possible devices and stratagem of counter-point technique.  The cycle develops according natural logic, from simple to more complicated.  The image content is theatrically bright, relieving, picturesque, even carnival-like.  The general mood is lively and optimistic.  It's remarkable that the author suggests conventional titles for the preludes, doing it at the end of each miniature, as if trying not to distract the listener's attention from music, fearing to dictate, advocate his own image.  The cycle seems to be almost monothematic - so close intonationally are the themes, emerging from the melodic "grain".  Very fine is the other line - lyrical, dramatic - which reveals the traits which were lately implemented in the tragic images of "Musical Offering."


R. Shchedrin
(b 1932)

Polyphonic Notebook
Twenty-Five Polyphonic Preludes, (1972)
Transcription for organ by A. Chulovsky

1. Two-Part Invention. Andantino
2. Canon at the Octave. Allegro
3. Ostinato. Sostenuto
4. Fughetta. Moderato
5. Canonic Imitation. Allegretto
6. Supporting Voices. Rubato, Ma Andante
7. Mirror Canon. Commodo
8. Recitative and Contrary, Motion. Animato Recitando
9. Etude (Inversion). Scherzando Capriccioso
10. Chaconne. Sostenuto
11. Counterpoint. Moderato
12. Toccatina-Collage. Allegro Grazioso
13. Three-Part Invention. Andante
14. Canon in Augmentation. Moderato Risoluto
15. Motet (Double Canon). Sostenuto
16. Basso Ostinato. Allegro
17. Perpetual Canon. Recitando Improvisato
18. Fugue. Allegro Moderato
19. Truple Counterpoint. Larghetto
20. Canon On Cantus Firmus. Andantino
21. Passacaglia. Andante Espressivo
22. Three-Part Canon. Moderato
23. Double Fugue. Allegro
24. Horizontal and Vertical. Adagio Improvisato
25. Polyphonic Mosaic. Andantino, Poco Rubato

Total Time - 52:52

Andrei Chulovsky, organ of the Small Hall of the Moscow Conservatory

Design by Evgeni Kostitsyn