This episode is dedicated to the 90th birthday of Sofia Gubaidulina. Based on archival documents, historical publications and her interviews from the 1990s to present, the episode discusses Gubaidulina’s spiritual philosophy of music and positions her work alongside some of her most prominent contemporaries – Andrei Tarkovsky, Gennady Aygi, Valentin Silvestrov and John Cage.

Playlist

1. Valentin Silvestrov, “When the cornfield, yellowing, stirs,” from a cycle Silent Songs (1973-1977), dedicated to Sofia Gubaidulina
   Sergey Yakovenko, Baritone
   Ilya Scheps, Piano
   ECM records
2. Sofia Gubaidulina, Introitus (1978)
   Kyiv Chamber Players
   Vladimir Kozhukhar, conductor
   Beatrice Rauchs, piano
   BIS
3. Sofia Gubaidulina, Vyacheslav Artyomov, Victor Suslin “Archipelagos of sounds in the ocean of time” (1977)
   Astreya Ensemble
   Solyd Records
4. Sofia Gubaidulina, Offertorium (1980)
   Gidon Kremer, violin
   Boston Symphony Orchestra, Charles Dutoit
   Deutsche Grammophon
5. Sofia Gubaidulina, Seven Last Words (1982)
   Vladimir Tonha, cello
   Friedrich Lips, bayan
   Collegium Musicum Chamber Orchestra
   Timur Mynbaev, conductor
   Melodiya
6. Sofia Gubaidulina, Hommage à T. S. Eliot (1987)
   Christen Whittlesey, soprano
   Gidon Kremer, violin
   Boston Symphony Orchestra, Charles Dutoit
   Deutsche Grammophon
7. Sofia Gubaidulina, Now Always Snow (1993)
   Netherlands Chamber Choir
   Schönberg Ensemble, Reinbert de Leeuw
   Philips Classics
8. Sofia Gubaidulina, Canticle of the Sun (1997)
   Mstislav Rostropovich, cello and percussion
   London Voices
   London Symphony Orchestra
   EMI Classics
9. Sofia Gubaidulina, Canticle of the Sun (1997) Nicolas Altstaedt, Violoncello Andrei Pushkarev, Percussion Rihards Zaļupe, Percussion, Rostislav Krimer, Celesta, Riga Chamber Choir Kamēr…, Māris Sirmais, Conductor ECM records
10. Sofia Gubaidulina, Am Rande des Abgrunds (On the Edge of an Abyss, 2002) Julius Berger, Niklas Eppinger, Aleksandra Ohar, Diego Garcia, Yoonha Choi, Yoon-Jung Hwang, Tai-yang Zhang: violoncelli. Sofia Gubaidulina, Victor Suslin: waterphones WERGO
11. Sofia Gubaidulina, Dialog: Ich und Du (2018)
    Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
    Vadim Repin, violin)
    Andres Mustonen, conductor
    June 2019, Wien, Grosser Musikvereinssaal (archival recording)

Note that only brief excerpts from each piece are quoted in the program. Please consider purchasing complete recordings at the links above.

mp3 file download

Works cited

Aygi, Gennady and Peter France. Selected Poems: 1954-1994. Angel: 1997.
Gubaidulina, Sofia. Letter to Victor Suslin, May 24, 1983, Paul Sacher Stiftung, Sofia Gubaidulina Collection.
Kholopova, Valentina. Sofia Gubaidulina. Moscow: Kompozitor, 2008.
Kurtz, Michael. Sofia Gubaidulina: a biography. Translated by Christoph K. Lohmann; edited by Malcolm Hamrick Brown. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007. Originally published in German as Sofia Gubaidulina: eine Biografie. Stuttgart: Urachhaus, 2001.
Licht, Viktor and Elena Dolinskaya. “Dialog o festival.” Sovetskaya muzyka no 3 (1983): 2-27.
Lukomsky, Vera and Sofia Gubaidulina. “My Desire Is Always to Rebel, to Swim against the Stream!” Perspectives of New Music. 36, No. 1 (Winter, 1998): 5-41.
_____________________. “’The Eucharist in My Fantasy’: Interview with Sofia Gubaidulina.” Tempo, New Series (Sep., 1998): 29-37.
Martynov, Vladimir. Avtoarkheologiya 1978–1998. Moscow: Klassika-XXI, 2012.
Munipov, Alexei. Fermata: razgovory s kompozitorami. Moscow: Novoe iztatelstvo, 2019.
Nesterenko, Oksana “A Forbidden Fruit? Religion, Spirituality and Music in the USSR Before Its Fall (1964–1991)” (Ph.D. diss., Stony Brook University, 2021).
Nesterenko, Oksana. “Vertical Time in Sofia Gubaidulina’s Hommage a TS Eliot” (MA thesis, Stony Brook University, 2013).
Ortmeier, Philipp. Symbol und Wirklichkeit im Schaffen von Sofia Gubaidulina. Passau: Klinger, 2011.
Smith, Jenna. “Sofia Gubaidulina’s violin concerto Offertorium: theology and music in dialogue” (PhD Dissertation, Université de Montréal, 2010).
Restagno, Enzo and Sofia Gubaidulina. “Zhyzn’ Pamyati: Sofia Gubaidulina Beseduet s Enzo Restagno.” In Sofia Gubaiduluna, edited by Valentina Kholopova. Moscow: Kompozitor, 2008.

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