Salomon Jadassohn (1831-1902)
Symphonie n° 1 en do majeur, op. 24
Concerto pour piano n° 1 en do mineur, op. 89

Paul Pabst (1854-1897)
Concerto en mi bémol, op. 82

Orchestre Symphonique d'état de Biélorussie
Marius Stravinski, direction
Orchestre Symphonique d'état de Karélie
Denis Vlasenko, direction

It is clear that Jadassohn is a shamefully neglected composer. Many music critics attacked Jadassohn’s works, labeling them dry and academic. Nothing could be farther from the truth as his joyous First Symphony shows. Jadassohn was a distinguished teacher, he considered himself primarily a composer. He was acknowledged to be a master of counterpoint and harmony. He was also a gifted melodist in the tradition of Mendelssohn. Pabst was born in 1854 into a family of very highly gifted musicians in Konigsberg, at the time the capital of East Prussia. Pabst started his solo career as a pianist when he was only 12 years old. Later, Pabst had a fortuitous meeting with the great pianist/composer Anton Rubinstein which had a great bearing on Pabst’s career. In April 1885 pianist Pavel Pabst left his home in Moscow for St. Petersburg to give the premiere of his first orchestral composition, a Piano Concerto. The concerto received a poor reception, and when Pabst returned to Moscow for a second performance worse was to come. The critics branded the work “not in the tradition of Russian composition”, and called the last movement ‘frivolous’. It was all too depressing for Pabst, still only 31 years old. He packed up the score of his first orchestral composition and sent it away to publishers in Leipzig. He chose to concentrate on teaching. He never composed for the orchestra again, and died at the age of 43. His concerto was lost to the musical world for over a century.