SATARSA

PROGRAM NOTE

“Palindromes in music are just as normal as the Fibonacci numbers in the structure of leaves on the trees.

Therefore, when I read the story of Cortazar “Satarsa”, I immediately felt the mysterious musical current in it.

Surprisingly, for more than 15 years, I periodically return to his unusually rich work and find sources of inspiration for myself. My SATARSA is a desert of pleasure. A desert with gardens of paradise, crooked mirrors, and an endless horizon, from which the melodies of our past lives are heard.” 

Maxim Shalygin

ALBUM

  • SATARSA M. Shalygin 17:07 
  • Where Every Verse is Filled with Grief A. Schnittke (arr. M. Shalygin) 7:37

Unquestionably one of the choral masterpieces of the 20th century, Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto for Mixed Chorus (1984/5) is an extended setting of words taken from ‘The Book of Lamentations’ by the Armenian monk Grigor Narekatsi (951-1003).

The second movement of the concert is reborn in this special arrangement made by Shalygin for the Kamerorkest van het Noorden in the beauty of the sound of 15 string players.

“”Many years ago, during my entrance exams at the St Petersburg Conservatoire, I had a dream in which I was talking to Schnittke. It was a meeting with the beloved master. We were sitting in my small kitchen in my home town of Kamynske, talking as if we had been friends for a long time. This meeting was like a lifeline in an ocean of loneliness, stress and disillusionment.

Schnittke’s choral concerto is one of my favourite pieces in music history, and the arrangement of ‘Where every verse is filled with grief’ (Part II) proved to be another bond with this great composer.

It’s so sad that his music is so rarely heard today. ” 

Maxim Shalygin