Kirill Voljanin
Bergmann Edition: 21 pages
I have seen several pieces by this composer and here is a new set, based around the feel and the sounds of winter.
Christmas Snow is the first, which takes off at a quick 150 beats a minute and, after a clever introduction, suddenly evolves into some unusual and interesting arpeggio figurations that crop up a number of times throughout this 6 pager, and manage to place the arpeggios in places that you probably haven’t played before, but once you understand them , they then fall easily under your fingers .Then a large section of rising and falling scale like patterns , (maybe snow flurries rising and falling) turn back into the arpeggio patterns , slightly altered, before then turning into a sequence of triplet semi-quavers. This then eventually turns back into the opening introduction and a repeat, again slightly varied, of the first arpeggio idea, which leads to a close on an Em chord.
Christmas Waltz is in C Major and written as 6/8, although it is obvious that each bar is two groups of 3 beats, as a waltz would be. This piece is chord driven and moves along fairly swiftly, and going noticeably out of C Major, a number of times , before returning back with a fast and effective coda on a run up a C Major arpeggio, and a final perfect cadence.
Winter Etude is in Dm, and although marked Animato, Poco Rubato, is more emotive, and with touches of sadness along the way. It still manages to move around the fingerboard quite quickly, and managing to sound unlike other pieces as it does. It is effective and a little unusual, and so is great fun to get your hands around.
The final piece Umilenie (Tender Mercy) is a tremolo piece of 161 bars in C Major 3 / 4 time, with three crotchets as the bass line and four semi-quavers as the tremolo for every crotchet. The melody only move3s gradually and so does not jump around the fretboard making the tremolo difficult, but rather stays around the same areas for most of the time and so gives the player a chance to get used to the technique, making it a very handy study in that style , should anyone want it for that specific reason.
None of these pieces are too tricky, but you do have to be a decent player to make sense out of them for a considerable time. They are melodic, interesting, effectively written and therefore would be fine for any intermediate player who likes this writer’s style.
Chris Dumigan
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