Sokolov: Divertissement, Op. 42

Description

Composed during the last two decades of his life, Nikolai Sokolov's Divertissement, Op. 42 for symphonic orchestra represented the robust technicalism yet artful musicality produced from rigorous study within the conservatory-driven, Germano-centric aesthetic doctrines of the Russian late-19th to early 20th centuries. However, counterbalancing this was a pull towards the Exotic fragrance of national music from lands far away, the captivating allure of effortless and sumptuous evenings, melancholy and nostalgic evocations, and triumphant pronouncements of heroism. Throughout the work's ten movements, allusions to many things, from Hungarian folk music and its nationalist joviality, to the chaste strains on Francophile medievalism and the dotted merriment of Western Austrian folk music, Sokolov creates a musical tapestry woven from many disparate trends across Romanticism, Impressionism, and early-Modernism. Demonstrating a unique synthesis of foreign and domestic compositional influences, a work of such caliber typifies the frustrated and, in many respects undesired, transition from 19th-century decadence and grandeur to 20th-century modernity.

It is rather apparent that Sokolov's place in (Russian) music history is as a footnote in the larger transitional space of the late-19th to pre-Revolution 20th century, his legacy almost exclusively governed by his relationship to music publishing mogul, impresario, and patron Mitronfan Belyayev. Musicologist Richard Taruskin called him "the Belyayevets composer."1 in any case, Sokolov's life, dominated by his theoretical and grosser pedagogical work at St. Petersburg Conservatory, generated a sizeable oeuvre, spanning across the gamut of categorical possibilities, from string quartets (Op. 7, 14, 20) and lieder, choruses, and romances, to chamber music (Op. 25, 45, 17) and larger orchestral works (Op. 44, 40, 18). One of the more popular works which is still known today in the repertoire is the collaborative work from within Belyayev's creative circle, "Les Vendredis".16 string quartets written by various members of the circle including better-known figures like Glazunov, Rimsky-Korsakov (Sokolov's composition teacher), Liadov, and Borodin, among notable others. Within the Western purview, most, if not all, of Sokolov's music remains unappreciated and unheard, some of the most exquisite examples found from his romances (Op. 10, 9, 41), of which little has been formally recorded. One of Sokolov's important works, the "String Trio in D Minor" (Op. 45), is a classical example of Russia's late-19th century turn towards chamber music, a popular trend being the "trio élégique."