Search - Nikita Koshkin :: Nikita Koshkin: Guitar Music

Well done but Koshkin already did much of it

Jeremiah Lawson | Seattle, WA United States | 09/23/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I can't speak badly about her musicianship. She does a good job.



Unfortunately at least half of this stuff has been recorded by Koshkin with the Soundset label on The Prince's Toys and The Well-Tempered Koshkin. I had hoped Elena's album would include more pieces that no one else had recorded.



The Ballads are on The Well-Tempered Koshkin already (Soundset). Prelude and Waltz are already on the other Soundset release Koshkin did, The Prince's Toys. EP does well with the earlier Ballads but takes the closing movements too slowly. Her take on the Homage to Segovia, though, is as good as Koshkin's. Still, so much of this stuff has been done by Koshkin already EP's at a disadvantage. But Koshkin fans will be glad someone is putting out a CD dedicated to his music nonetheless.



The stand-out pieces are the ones that haven't been recorded before: the first track (a polka written for her during K's trip to see her); another piece inspired by Greek folklore (Kyparissos (sic?)); and a guitar sonata.



Of these three the guitar sonata is the most ambitious. The first two of the three have a nice sound but seem to sprawl a bit as though Koshkin wrote them quickly (something the liner notes suggest). The polka is fun as a musical joke but where those go I prefer Let's Play Together from Well-Temepered Koshkin (it's a lot funnier, for what that's worth). This CD is a great sampling of Koshkin's stylistic poles. The Sonata and the Ballads are as stylistically far apart as anything in Koshkin's output. If you choose to get just one CD of Koshkin music that gets the balance of his output this is probably the one to get. But you shouldn't get just one CD of his music!



A word about the sonata itself. It's a lot like late Shostakovich, particularly similar in mood to the 13th and 14th string quartets only for the guitar. You may disagree but Shostakovich is one of Koshkin's favorites so it's a useful point of comparison for anyone who hasn't heard NK yet. I like the idea of writing three sonata forms and while the dramatic arc of the work as a whole is nice Koshkin recapitulates his individual sonata forms a bit late for my tastes. I suspect the sprawling of individual movements reflects some weaknesses inherent to his influences (i.e. Shostakovich). But even with these caveats Koshkin is the most interesting and important guitarist/composer active today.



One last note. The liner notes mention that Koshkin worked on a sonata for flute and guitar and he considers one of his best compositions. Koshkin has recorded the piece himself on the Kreuzberg label and all Koshkin fans owe it to themselves to get the CD just for that piece."