Digital reissue of Cd-album MIR/Eurock records.

In 2005, MIR Records began releasing the music of Russian composer Mikhail Chekalin in the USA. This month the release of four new Chekalin albums brings his catalog to 43 CDs and 4 DVDs, which highlight the incredible range of one of Russia’s most adventurous modern musician/ composers in the post symphonic and electronic music idioms. In little under a decade, Chekalin and his music have gone from virtual obscurity to being available now worldwide via Amazon
Audio CD (November 6, 2014)
Number of Discs: 1
Format: CD
Label: Mir Records / Eurock
Run Time: 71 minutes
ASIN: B00PBGP9LI

The centerpiece of Chekalin’s second new album entitled "MonoOpera - What is Po?" is a performance piece entitled "Frother – The Dew of Death", a modernist reinterpretation of an avant-garde work by Alexander Ivanovich Vvedensky. All of the albums recitations are based on the avant-garde poetry of three Russian-Soviet poets from the 1920s-30s Vvedensky, Daniil Kharms & Igor Bakhterev who were part of the short-lived underground avant-garde group OBERIU (an acronym for the union for real art) which existed for a short time during the Soviet era.

Alexander Vvedensky was born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1904 and grew up in the midst of war and revolution, reaching artistic maturity at the time Stalin consolidated control over Russia. He became a major figure in the OBERIU and had formidable influence in Unofficial and avant-garde art circles during the time of the Soviet Union.

In 1931, arrested for alleged counterrevolutionary literary activities, he was interrogated and sentenced to three years of internal exile. He was detained again in 1941 and on February 2 of that year died on a prison train. Much of his work has been lost, what remains has established him as one of the most influential Russian poets of the twentieth century.

For the recording and performance of the "MonoOpera..." Chekalin worked with his wife Natalya to create a multimedia experience that made full use of her dynamic talents. The prestigious premiere held in 2009 at the Moscow Theater Na Passionate was a powerful audio/visual experience. Her stunning visage and powerful delivery serving as a vivid focal point set against a tapestry of post symphonic electronic music and kaleidoscopic visuals. On this album, the combination of her dramatic interpretations and Chekalin’s striking musical accompaniments result in an epic modern operatic tone poem. There are many who attempt such experiments, but few are able to pull it off successfully. The marriage of Chekalin’s music with Natalya’s flesh and blood incantations embodies the creative essence of true avant-gardism.

Sadly, Natalya passed away early in 2014. She will remembered by many people in Russia for her other performances on stage as well as the many voiceovers she did for American actors in Russian versions of US major motion pictures like "Dead Man Walking", "The Thorn Birds" and "The Last Emperor". Children were very fond of her as well for doing the voices of many cartoons, Disney characters in like Scrooge "Duck Tales", plus Casper (The Friendly Ghost) and others. Her memory however will live on now in an entirely unique way for the stunning performance she gives on the album "The MonoOpera - What is Po?" that reincarnates a masterful work of literature from the Russian past.