OPUS POSTH

Two compositions by Vladimir Martynov


OPUS POSTH It feels ridiculous trying to be a composer when you exist in a post-composition era, writing and pretending to ignore the fact that the age of the composer has already passed. But it's not that simple to deny the composer in oneself. Not everyone has had the luck to meet one's own Vanya Rublow . Now you have to rely on your own strengths and define the borders for yourself.The natural borders of composition are the first opus and the last one. They are the first and last point in a cyclical idea of composition, the idea of the opus. But what lies beyond these borders?

Is it possible to break the shell of this form and reach out beyond it and touch some other? I always wanted to be the monk in medieval illustrations who, having reached the end of the world, pushed his head through the firmament and saw the wheels and machinery which moves the planets! To go beyond the borders of the beginning and the end - isn't that the real purpose of life?

OPUS POSTHI was once told that man touches the truth twice. The first time is the first cry from a new born baby's lips and the last is the death rattle. Everything between is untruth to a greater or lesser extend. So why not try to go all the way from the death rattle to the first cry, from the last opus to the first? But that might lead us to see Stalin standing on the Mausoleum as innocent and lofty as a swallow, and a swallow gulping a moquito in flight would seem no less nightmarish and monstrous than Stalin, who destroyed millions of lives. All this is terribly confusing and it is much better to forget all the conundrums and sink into sweet melancholy. And let this melancholy last as long as possible; I suppose that's the only answer to the question of reality.

Vladimir Martynov


OPUS POSTH

Alexey Lyubimov, piano
Anton Batagov, piano
Georgy Zhuravlev, voice
recorded: June 15 & 16 1997, Chaikovsky Hall, Moscow
sound engineer: Alexander Khromchenko
mastering: Bozman, Saturday Mastering Studio, Moscow
design: Igor Gurovich
producer: Nick Dmitriev

1. OPUS POSTHUMUM (1993), 53:47
2. OPUS PRENATUM (1953), 6:02Opus Prenatum

TEMPUS SUMMUM 59:52


There is another CD with compositions by Vladimir Martynov:
The Sirin Choir
sings The Lamentation of Jeremiah
set to music by Vladimir Martynov
Saison Russe Recording (P) 1997, RUS 288 153

from Daniil Kharms Four illustrations on how a new idea disconcerts someone who is not prepared:

Composer: "I am a composer."
Vanja Rublow: "I think your are shit!"
Composer, barely breathing, falls to the floor and is carried out.       top


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