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The Ukrainian Festival Orchestra & Ukrainian Festival Choir conducted by Ivan Ostapovych recorded and posted up two operas in 2021 by Porphyry Bazhansky:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkQy4lKpTdU - Dovbush

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6knnUVmgd60 - Bila Tsyganka (= The White Gypsy Girl)


Wikipedia pages on the composer (none in English)
https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Бажанський_Порфирій_Іванович - Ukrainian
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Баженский,_Порфирий_Иванович - Russian


http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CB%5CA%5CBazhanskyPorfyrii.htm
Bazhansky, Porfyrii [Бажанський, Порфирій; ; Bažans'kyj, Porfyrij], b 24 February 1836 in Beleluia, Sniatyn county, Galicia, d 29 December 1920 in Lviv. Self-taught composer, folklorist, music theorist, and Ukrainian Catholic priest. Bazhansky received his music education at the Greek Catholic Theological Seminary in Lviv. He collected folk songs, some of which he published or used in his compositions. Among his works are 'folk' melodramatic operas, church music (1869), music for mixed choirs, and two song collections: Halyts'ko-bukovyns'ki narodni melodiï (Galician-Bukovynian Folk Melodies, 1890–1906) and Rus'ko-halyts'ki narodni melodiï (Ruthenian-Galician Folk Melodies, 1905–12). He wrote articles on melodies and harmony and collected and arranged folk songs, in which he utilized Mykola Dyletsky's unpublished writings.

The following were posted up on youtube throughout 2021 by the Ukrainian Festival Orchestra:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBV_UIJ7Zog - Concerto for piano and orchestra in D minor (composed 1916). World Premiere
Marta Kuziy - piano
Ukrainian Festival Orchestra
Ivan Ostapovych - conductor
Orchestration - Oleg Zaruma
Recorded on December 23, 2020


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqYJKa8eKis - Piano Concerto in A Minor (composed 1917). World Premiere
Andriy Makarevych - piano
Ukrainian Festival Orchestra
Ivan Ostapovych - conductor


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUAgOnS2ess – Violin Concerto (composed 1945, outside "our" era but (a) being completist, and (b) I think it fits stylistically.  Not a world premiere, but only movts 2 and 3 have ever been available, I presume the previous recording of the 1st movt must have been lost)
Adrian Bodnar - violin
Ukrainian Festival Orchestra
Ivan Ostapovych - conductor
Recorded on December 11, 2020

By chance I came across this 2006 concert "The Unknown Koshetz" by The Centre for Ukrainian Canadian Studies at The University of Manitoba, which they have put online at https://umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/departments/ukrainian_canadian_studies/about/koshetz.html - each song is downloadable directly as an mp3. The concert consists of arrangements by the Ukrainian composer Oleksandr Koshyts (1875-1944, also spelt Kozhets, etc) of the music of Hawaii, the United States, French Canada, Scotland and First Nations, as well as arrangements of songs by the US composer Stephen Foster (1826-1864).



From wikipedia: Koshyts was a Ukrainian choral conductor, arranger, composer, ethnographer, writer, musicologist, and lecturer. He helped popularize Ukrainian music around the world. His name is sometimes transliterated as Oleksandr Koshyts (Ukrainian: Олександр Кошиць). At one time, a performance of Koshetz's Ukrainian National Chorus held the world record for audience attendance, excluding sporting events. His performance also popularized Mykola Leontovych's "Shchedryk" in his concert, which Peter Wilhousky later translated into the popular "Carol of the Bells". Early life and career
Koshetz was born in the village of Romashky in Kiev Guberniya. He graduated from the Kiev Theological Academy in 1901, then studied in the Lysenko School of Music and Drama, 1908–1910. He taught choral music at Kiev's Imperial Conservatory of Music, conducted the Sadovsky Theatre Orchestra, served as conductor and choirmaster of the Kiev Opera.
He also collected Ukrainian folk songs from central Ukrainian areas (notably around Kiev itself) as well as from the modern Russian area of Kuban, where he specially set out to see whether musical traditions of the Dnieper Cossacks are still present in their descendants, the Kuban Cossacks, who resettled there following the dissolution of the Zaporozhian Sich. In the latter case he too managed to collect a number of songs.

Ukrainian Republic Capella and emigration

Koshetz with the Ukrainian National Chorus, c. 1922-1924
After World War I, Koshetz was the co-founder and conductor of the Ukrainian Republic Capella (later renamed Ukrainian National Chorus). The choir toured Europe and the Americas in 1919–1924 and 1926–27, in support of the international Ukrainian community.
In 1917 Koshetz married a former student and singer in his choirs Tetyana Koshetz (1892–1966) who was later to become a vocalist in the Ukrainian National Chorus, voice teacher, and after 1944 curator of the Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre in Winnipeg.
It was Koshetz who introduced the song "Shchedryk" by Mykola Leontovych, at a concert in Kiev in 1919. Eventually the song became a Christmas classic under the name "Carol of the Bells".
He moved to New York City in 1922 where he collected liturgical music, arranged and popularized Ukrainian folk music. Koshetz also documented the choir's travels in the memoir With Song, Around the World (З піснею через світ).
From 1941 Koshetz spent the summer months teaching in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, where he died in 1944 at age 69.
Although Koshetz was mostly known as a conductor, he also did his share of composing and arranging music. In the 1920s, after the creation of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, Koshetz composed his liturgy, the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, as well as ten Ukrainian religious chants. Later in emigration, he composed much more religious music.

By chance I have come across an online concert recording of "The Page: A cantata from Mazeppa" by Michael Balfe (1808-1870), performed in 2006 by the University of Manitoba Women's Choir under Henry Engbrecht.  It's with piano accompaniment rather than the presumed orchestra. It's in 10 parts including an overture, and each part is downloadable as an mp3 track.

https://umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/departments/ukrainian_canadian_studies/about/Mazeppa.html

See also https://umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/departments/ukrainian_canadian_studies/about/2081.html - for some background to the concert.

Szymanowski has been mentioned a lot in a thread going on atm on Maliszewski.   I have always ignored Szymanowski as he is labelled as a modernist, and the few pieces I've heard I haven't liked even slightly.

Given his dates, though, are there any of his works (maybe early ones, as with Stravinsky) that fall within the style and tastes of this forum?  If not, please forgive the distraction and delete this thread!

Vladimir Nikolaevich Tsybin was a Russian composer, flautist, and conductor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Tsybin

Russian flautist Stanislav Yaroshevsky (accompanied on the piano by Marina Belashuk) has brought out a CD of Tsybin's flute music.  More about it here (in Russian, use google translate): https://www.classicalmusicnews.ru/interview/yaroshevsky-tsybin-cd/



(Yaroshevsky is a friend of a friend: if anyone is interested to obtain the CD but has difficulties doing so, do contact me and we can try to work out something.)

There was a programme on the BBC last night featuring Michael Palin traveling through Brazil.  In the city of Manaus (capital of Amazonas state), there is a magnificent-looking opera house - a legacy of when it was a major production and trading hub for rubber.

While he was there, they filmed rehearsals for an opera by a Brazilian composer I had never heard of called Antônio Carlos Gomes (1836-1896).  He has been mentioned once in passing on this forum.  The rehearsals were for his opera "Il Guarany" ("The Guarany" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_Guarany).  It turns out there are a lot of versions of it on youtube. I can't speak expertly about the genre, but to my ears it sounds as if he fills the space between Verdi and Puccini, anyway I like what I have heard, and the overture especially.  I have scoured youtube for his other works and have copy-pasted here links mostly to the overtures of his other operas, complete versions of which are also on youtube. After Il Guarany, it seems "Lo Schiavo" ("The Slave" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lo_schiavo) is his most popular work, premiered in 1889 when slavery was a very hot issue in Brazil which only abolished it in 1888. From it, the 8-minute orchestral piece "Alvorada" (meaning "Dawn") is particularly lovely.


Dawn ("Alvorada", from Lo Schiavo)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJuLkDAiZc0

Prelude (Lo Schiavo)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyX1Q7kQ8iw

Il Guarany - overture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxbR0k8AhBs

Il Guarany - ballet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2RBsaI3bJw

Fosca – overture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebDoUyS5O-U

Fosca – overture to Act 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh21dWZBBcw

Noite do Castelo - overture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YTTyCV08FI

Ave Maria
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csQv5hGGH_0

Quem Sabe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv2yP6P0vPQ

Maria Tudor - overture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvfi0ga3r58

Salvator Rosa – overture-sinfonia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hP9vGdazzU

Colombo (cantata) - introduction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tJzLRBeW2k

Missa de Sao Sebastiao
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C6P_VNZlos

Joana de Flandres - overture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRsplBdtAVk

Condor (aka "Odalea") – overture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twiS6wt6u1A

Condor – Noturno
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjuLa1L330E

Saluto del Brasile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwTQshm4QdA

Saudade
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcWDgTXpg94

Hello - is anyone else getting issues with the Search function? I consistently get "Error 403"....

Catoire wrote just one other orchestral work ("Mtsyri" symphonic poem"). It's probably the completist in me, but wouldn't those involved in both PC recordings be curious enough to record it too? (Admittedly I say this with no idea of how recording companies and orchestras work, so pace all!) Or maybe they did and it will one day appear on a separate CD.   Or maybe they looked at it and it's a dreadful piece!

Well - as if by magic:

MTSYRI:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4HKnpx8tPw - fragment 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HSspscHCFc - fragment 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thVSifRKG3Q - fragment 3

I think there are more fragments: it was recorded by Radio Orpheus in Moscow as part of a concert, and seems to have been split up over the course of the concert, which was also interspersed with readings. Hence the fragmentation.  I haven't listened through the whole concert to ascertain how may fragments there are yet.
This is the concert - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TAv43-wsbo%5Cu0026feature%3Dyoutu.be

In an interview with the conductor Sergei Kondrashev - here - https://orpheusradio.ru/news/discussions/3642/sergey-kondrashev-muzyka-katuara-greet-dushu - he says they have also recorded "Rusalka".  I will research that.

[A. Vakhnyanyn's opera "Kupalo"]

Natal Vakhnianyn: 1841-1908

I was reading the Ukraine Live website where they have an article about Romantic composers from Ukraine. https://ukrainianlive.org/romanticism#article-in-english  I came to a paragraph which read "Among the wide genre variety of folk art, Ukrainian romantics were especially attracted to the epic and Ukrainian lyrical songs. The fascination with the heroic past was a characteristic feature of the romantic worldview, but for Ukrainian romantics' aesthetics, the national epic gained particular importance. Cossack themes became the basis of M.Lysenko's operas" "Taras Bulba" and "Aeneid" A. Vakhnyanyn's opera "Kupalo" is embodied in several cantatas and choirs by M. Lysenko, romances and choirs by K. Stetsenko and S. Lyudkevych."

While Lysenko, Stetsenko and Lyudkevych have been covered elsewhere on this forum, I had never heard of Vakhnyanyn.  A search for his name on this forum revealed he had never been mentioned by anyone else here.  Naturally I was curious to learn more and particularly to find out whether anything by him has been recorded.  I put his name in Ukrainian (Вахнянин) into youtube, and sure enough his entire opera Kupalo is there, performed by the Lviv opera in 2003:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVjUa9cvvPU - Act I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j88WcqdCzU - Act II
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkpJQo6AaPU - Act III
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZr-tFySusM - Act IV

I haven't listened it through yet, but nevertheless thought to post it as it certainly falls within our era, and stylistically (having listened to the first 10 minutes) it fits too.

Vakhnianyn (or Vakhnyanyn) also has a wikipedia page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatole_Vakhnianyn - apparently his first name was actually Anatol but he wrote under the pen name Natal.

Kupalo (the name of his opera) is a Slavic deity:  "God representing the mighty sun of summer solstice, but also goddess of joy and water. He is celebrated on Kupala Night with rituals of purification through water and fire. He is seldom represented as male, and the name Kupala or Kupalo is etymologically related to the verb kupati, "to wet". Solntse (simply "Sun", but often translated Phoebus) is another name of the goddess of the fully bright sun. The cult of Kupala was Christianised as that of John the Baptist."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deities_of_Slavic_religion


Ukraine Live, by the way, have an app that I would recommend: every time they upload a new piece of Ukrainian classical music, you get a notification on your phone. Rather clever.  https://ukrainianlive.org/install-the-app

I'm loving this Requiem by this composer.  I don't know if he is from slightly before "our" era, but his dates are almost the same as Osip Kozlovsky's, whose Requiem has generated a lot of discission on here.

Requiem - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbjGmWmEoxY

about - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/José_Maurício_Nunes_Garcia

José Maurício Nunes Garcia (September 22, 1767 – April 18, 1830) was a Brazilian classical composer, one of the greatest exponents of Classicism in the Americas.

Born in Rio de Janeiro, son of mulattos, Nunes Garcia lost his father at an early age. His mother perceived that her son had an inclination for becoming a musician and, for this reason, improved her work to allow him to continue his musical studies.

Nunes Garcia became a priest and, when prince John VI of Portugal came to Rio de Janeiro with his 15,000 people, Nunes Garcia was appointed Master of the Royal Chapel. He sang and played the harpsichord, performing his compositions as well as those of other composers such as Domenico Cimarosa and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He was a very prestigious musician in the royal court of John VI.

His musical style was strongly influenced by Viennese composers of the period, such as Mozart and Haydn. Today, some 240 musical pieces written by Nunes Garcia survive, and at least 170 others are known to have been lost [1]. Most of his compositions are sacred works, but he wrote also some secular pieces, including the opera Le due gemelle and the Tempest Symphony....

Cesar Cui's fairytale opera for children Ivan the Simpleton ("Ivanushka-Durachok") has just been released by Aquarius-Classics.  It is actually a recording from 1949 though I presume it has not previously been released.  You have to buy directly from Aquarius, via messaging them (address on the website) and then paying by paypal. I've just ordered mine, $13 including postage (I've bought from them before with no issues).

http://aquarius-classic.ru/album?aid=387&tid=7&ver=eng

(This recording was previously mentioned here - http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,6304.msg70895.html#msg70895)


Synopsis and history of the opera here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_the_Fool_(opera)

I just noticed that Kastalsky's Requiem for Fallen Brothers is due to be released by Naxos at the end of August.  Premiered in 1917. 

https://www.naxos.com/ECard/2020/Kastalsky-Requiem/
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8795074--alexander-kastalsky-requiem

Joseph Charles Beutel (bass-baritone), Anna Dennis (soprano)
Cathedral Choral Society, The Clarion Choir, Chamber Choir of St. Tikhon's Monastery, Kansas City Chorale, Orchestra Of St. Luke's
Leonard Slatkin

Alexander Kastalsky was a student of Tchaikovsky and a mentor to Rachmaninov, becoming director of the Moscow Synodal School until the Bolshevik regime banned all sacred music, including the extraordinary Requiem for Fallen Brothers which consequently lay forgotten for over a century. The Requiem is a rich and varied mosaic that honours those who perished in the First World War, poignantly combining Orthodox and Gregorian chant with hymns from the allied nations, even including Rock of Ages. This unprecedented and peerless monument to those who made the ultimate sacrifice was acclaimed on its 1917 premiere as a 'uniquely Russian requiem that... gave musical voice to the tears of many nations'

Alexander Afanasyevich Stepanos Spendiaryan (Ալեքսանդր Ստեփանոսի Սպենդիարյան - also russified his surname to Spendiarov/Спендиаров)

I've just noticed that a complete recording of his opera "Almast" was put up on youtube a few years agoЖ  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q91DeYKlJuE&t=130s

Recorded 1972 - Vladimir Urbanovich as Prince Tatul; Novosibirsk State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet; conductor - Boris Gruzin

The opera was started in 1916 and completed in 1923.

Biographical info about Spendiaryan - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Spendiaryan

About the opera (from wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almast - though the Czech version of the same - https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almast -  has a much fuller entry for some reason (if you use google-translate):

Almast (Armenian: Ալմաստ meaning diamond) is the only opera of the Armenian composer Alexander Spendiaryan.  In 1916 Spendiaryan met Armenian poet Hovhannes Tumanian, who suggested three of his poems "Anush", "Parvana" and "The Siege of the Tmbouk Castle" as themes for a national Armenian opera. Spendiaryan listened to the prelude of the last poem and was immediately attracted by its beauty. According to Tumanian's daughter, he was fascinated by Firdousi's poem in the banquet scene, by Tatoul's nightmare, and by the ambitious Almast - who dreamed of winning the throne. Tumanian also organized special musical evenings for Spendiarian in his own home and then at Tbilisi's Music School, in which national musicians and minstrels took part. At this stage Spendiarian, a Russian-Armenian, began to make a detailed study of Armenian folk music. He wrote: "Amongst the large amount of material I was particularly struck by Nikoghayos Tigranyan's music, on which I composed some of the instrumental passages in my opera". Because of the pressure of work, Tumanian was forced to abandon the idea of writing the libretto himself, and the task was undertaken by Russian poet Sophia Parnok. In 1916 the libretto was ready, and Spendiaryan began work on the opera, and finished the opera's vocal score in 1923. He continued his work on the instrumentation right up to his death. The instrumentation of the fourth act of "Almast" was completed by composer Maximilian Steinberg. According to musical critic A. Shahverdian, "it is here that the basis was laid for a new style of Armenian national music."  The first performance of "Almast" took place in 1930 at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow. On January 20, when the Yerevan State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet was opened, a performance of the opera was given in Armenian in Tigran Hakhumyan's translation. It was performed also in Tbilisi, Tashkent, Novosibirsk and Odessa. It was re-staged in Yerevan also in 1939, 1969, 1971 and 1983. In 1951 The Russian Chamber Opera Theatre in Paris gave a performance of "Almast" in the Mutualité Hall.

Roles
Tatul, Armenian prince - baritone
Princess Almast. his wife - mezzo-soprano
Ruben, Tatul's comrade-in-arms - bass
Gajané, maid and confidant Almast - mezzo-soprano
Nádir Šáh , Persian ruler - bass
Sheikh, the highest Persian clergyman - tenor
The Shah's bodyguard - bass
Ali Murad, Shah's military leader - bass
Ashug (court singer) at the court of Nadir Shah - tenor
Three Persian warlords - two tenors and a bass
Jester at Tatul's court - tenor
Old snake - mezzo-soprano or alt
Armenian soldier - tenor
Tatul's warriors, girls-weavers, servants, dancers, Shah's bodyguards, Shah's courtiers, knights, executioners - mixed choir and ballet

Armenia, 18th century

Act 1
The Armenian fortress of Tmkabert , defended by the brave prince Tatul, is besieged by the Persian army of the mighty Nadir Shah . There is disappointment in his tent: even after a long siege, the fortress does not give up and all the attacks have so far been repulsed by the defenders. The Shah asks for the advice of his mentor, the old sheikh, and he has an unusual idea. Prince Tatul has a beautiful wife Almast, who is said to be very ambitious and whom the prince trusts indefinitely (arioso О шах, к победе всякий путь достоин ). If the Shah could get her on his side, the fort could fall into his hands.

Nadir Shah gratefully accepts the advice and sends it to the fort with the special mission of his best assuga (Persian equivalent of the troubadour ) to soothe the princess with his songs and tell her that the Shah has heard of her beauty and falls in love with her, and to promise her boundless wealth. and the crown of the empress, if given to him (even with the fortress) (arioso Войди к ней в дом ). Persian leaders pray together for success in the next fight.

Act 2

Tmkaberd Fortress (Tmuk, Tmogvi)
In the fortress, Armenian women weave a canvas and sing (the choir День и ночь печаль се са же ). The sheikh's master is doing well, the singer's efforts have not been in vain, and Almast is beginning to dream of himself as the Persian empress. Her maid and confidante Gajané warns her in vain against treacherous thoughts.

Behind the walls of the fort are the sounds of battle: Nadir Shah's army conducts another of its raids, and the Armenian warriors repel them again. Almast is tormented by conflicting feelings: on the one hand, she loves her husband and admires his bravery and justice, but on the other hand, she is attracted to the Shah's love and power. Moreover, it has a premonition that through valorous defense strength sooner or later will be as Persians conquered and all perish Как мне тоску переупрямить ).

Meanwhile, the end of the fight can be heard - the attackers were driven away, Tatul won again. Ashug did not miss the fact that the princess's affection under this impression leans back towards her husband, and she sings again a hymn to her beauty, which conquered the mighty Shah himself (the song В плен взяла певца ). The garrison of the fortress noisily celebrates the return of the victorious soldiers and the prince, but Tatula's first steps lead to the beloved Almast.

Act 3
Prince Tatul and his comrades-in-arms cheerfully celebrate today's victory. The toast chases the toast, Tatul's aide Ruben gives a speech to celebrate the hero, but the prince himself refuses in his toast the praise of his own person (aria Не славой дорожу, а дружбой вашей ). It resembles dead comrades instead. The soldiers join in and pay their last respects to fallen comrades, but then tune in to a more optimistic, masculine note (choir Не орел в ночи ). Then the fun resumes. The prince gives his men wine and food, the girls and the soldiers dance, and the prince clown sings a mocking song about the Shah's expedition.

Almast is once again trying to arouse ambition in his husband, to persuade him to use the victory for another conquest, to pursue the Shah and perhaps conquer the Persian crown himself. However, such thoughts are completely foreign to Tatul, he just wants to defend his homeland and rule in peace, on the contrary, he warns her husband against Persian tricks and treachery. Almast sees that their natures are incompatible, and he definitely decides to carry out his intention. Despite the husband's timid protests, he pours wine on everyone again and again, sends it to the soldiers on guard, and with his fiery dance pulls all present into such exuberant joy that they all end up drunk and exhausted.

When almost everyone falls asleep, Almast takes the torch and climbs the tower to give the Persian army the agreed signal to attack. The Guyans, who sensed her intention, try to stop their mistress and persuade her not to sell the Armenian nation and her noble wife. But Alast rejects her and gives the Shah's army a fire signal.

Gaians run and wake princes and warriors. But an unexpected Persian attack was effective, after a short battle the fortress is flooded by Persian troops and its ominous march sounds. Nádir Šáh enters the banquet hall and the princess welcomes him with a ceremonial bow.

Act 4
Taktul is dead and Nadir Shah is the lord of Tmkabert, but he is in a gloomy mood. In this conquered country, which is hostile to him, the struggle will always be close; not even the presence of the beautiful Almast pleases him. After all, she found that everything she had promised since the betrayal had been wasted: the ruler did not love her, and instead of the position of empress, the fate of a slave girl in a chess harem awaited her; she remembers her husband and feels hatred and regret at the same time (arioso Не цвести цветку угрюмых скал ). The temperamental princess eventually tries to kill the Shah, but the guards disarm her. Nadir Shah orders the traitor to be executed.

I recently stumbled across the London Armenian Opera company in the press, and so looked for their website which is here - http://helicon.meccahosting.com/~a0007ded/index.htm.

It seems they put on an Armenian opera once per year. Most are from "our" era.  I have written to them asking if they also make recordings.  No reply as of yet...

So far they have done (http://helicon.meccahosting.com/~a0007ded/past%20productions.htm#ANOUSH):

Anoush, a tragic opera by Armen Tigranian (1879-1950) (Tigranian can also be rendered as Dikranian)
Kaj Nazar', a comic opera by Haro Stepanian (1897-1966)
Davit Bek, an heroic opera by Armen Tigranian
Garineh (aka Leblebidji Hor-Hor Agha) by Tigran Chouhajian (aka Chukhajian, Dikran Tchouhadjian, 1837-1898)

(Complete recordings already exist of Anoush and Davit Bek - both are large-scale and immensely listenable)

The "Next production" page is currently blank...

An excerpt from Kaj Nazar (the Italian Queen's aria) is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t6UEvoXDAw though only with piano accompaniment.

Following on from this thread - http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,7499.msg79089.html#msg79089 - the Athens Philharmonic Orchestra (under Byron Fidetzis) has produced a CD with Vasili Kalafati's Symphony in A, Legend, and Polonaise.  It will be released in August.  I don't know on what label but the CD looks as below.  The cover is entirely in Greek bar the composer's name....

[Viktor Kosenko]

The Ukrainian composer Viktor Kosenko (1896-1938) has attracted favourable comment on here before, particularly for his piano concerto (I couldn't find the thread though).

I have found on youtube another complete performance of his piano concerto:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FjJ5mdOQ64 - movement 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCLd6EDQkOE - movement 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYK7GJJwLAs - movement 3


Also, someone called Evgeniy Zhaku has orchestrated his moderately well-known "11 Etudes in the Form of Old Dances" (Op.19), originally for solo piano. Played here by the Ukrainian Festival Orchestra under Serhiy Likhomanenko - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gazjQuyj0Zw (1h43m long, but LONG stretch of silence at beginning)

( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I80Zx8c8yc - 10 minute extract)

(The most popular piece from these Etudes is the 7th etude - Gavotte - here it is for solo piano https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg4kckDuet0 - click on number 7 at 31:37)

About the work - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleven_Études_in_the_Form_of_Old_Dances

Must be some telepathy going on - I noticed this piece only last week on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yot-tFYUBcg - though I strongly suspect Zusac's is a much better performance!

[Vladimir Alexeievich Senilov]

Vladimir Alexeievich Senilov (1875-1918) - this Russian composer has been mentioned in passing on this forum before.

His brief Wikipedia page, in Russian (https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Сенилов,_Владимир_Алексеевич), reads as follows:

Vladimir Alekseevich Senilov (July 9 (21), 1875, Vyatka (present day Kirov) - September 18, 1918, Petrograd) - Russian composer.

Biography
From childhood, he studied piano and flute. He studied at the law faculty of St. Petersburg University, which he graduated in 1899. In 1899-1901 in Leipzig he was a listener of lectures by X. Riemann on the theory of music. From 1902 to 1906 he studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.

Works
operas:
   "George the Brave" (text by A. M. Remizov);
   "Vasily Buslaev" (musical drama, on his own text);
   "Hippolytus" (after Euripides).
1 symphony;
"Autumn" overture;
Symphonic poems:
   "Wild ducks" (after Maupassant);
   "Mtsyri" (based on the poem of the same name by Lermontov)
   "Pan";
   "Scythians";
Poem for cello and piano;
Three string quartets;
about 90 romances (to the words of K. D. Balmont, A. A. Blok, B. Ya. Bryusov, F. K. Sologub, F. Nietzsche, J. Rischpen, G. Heine and others

His other wikipedia pages, in German and Catalan, add "Senilov studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov and worked as a music teacher and lawyer. In addition to several stage works, he composed a symphony , four symphonic poems , an orchestral overture and variations for orchestra, chamber music works, a cantata and choir and piano music. He set three poems by Anna Akhmatova : The Prayer ( Молитва ), The Gray-Eyed King ( Сероглазый король ) and The Statue of Tsarskoye Selo (Царскосельская статуя)."  "a Poem for cello and orchestra, a Variation for piano, a suite for soprano and orchestra, various choral pieces for women's voices, lieder , and various arrangements of old Russian folk songs"

His Variations for Clarinet and Piano were recently posted on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vtzb9BwM84w. As the work is quite substantial (over 15 minutes long), I thought I would post it up.  It is performed by students from the music conservatory of his home town Vyatka (now Kirov).

There is a much larger biography of Senilov on that youtube page - in Russian only so you will have to use google translate.

I also found this page - https://1dmsh.ru/category/news/ which appears to be that of the music school which performs the piece. It says that 11/23/2019 a concert was held in the school's large concert hall as part of the cycle "From the Past of Vyatka", dedicated to the work of the first Vyatka professional composer, student of N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov - Vladimir Alekseevich Senilov (1875-1918). The students got acquainted with the fate of a descendant of the Vyatka merchants, with the difficult choice this composer made to devote his life to his favourite work - music. Listeners got acquainted with the unique, rarely performed works of V. Senilov: romances performed by the ensemble of classes 6-7 of the choral department (headed by T. Shurakova, end - E. Sedelnikov), V. Shabalina, T Skurikhina .A., Gersimova V.N., I. Myachina, Leushina Alisa (teacher Shatunova V.P., piano - Kurteeva O.I.), variations for clarinet performed by E. Yushin (clarinet) and E. Lavrenova (piano). The evening was led by Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation Valentina Pavlovna Shatunova, who has been studying the work of our countryman for more than 30 years.

I have identified Ms Shatunova on social media and will write to her to ask if there have been any regional performances/recordings in Kirov of Senilov's works. She appears to be a person of some regional standing.
http://www.culture.admkirov.ru/sfera-cultury/kultura-v-licah/shatunova-valentina-pavlovna.html

[Bogdanov-Berezovsky, Valerian Mikhailovich]

In the recent thread about Kasili Kalafati, I drew attention to this concert ("Leningraders: 900 Days in the Name of Life" ("ЛЕНИНГРАДЦЫ. 900 ДНЕЙ ВО ИМЯ ЖИЗНИ")) which was held and broadcast in St. Petersburg in 2014 to mark 70 years since the end of the Siege of Leningrad. The music chosen was written by composers living, and in some cases dying, under the Siege. Most can be considered "Unsung".

Some of the pieces fall within "our" era.  Some are borderline.  And one or two are definitely outside our era.  I discussed with moderator Mark, and he felt that only the first piece was definitely outside our era (in this instance his views were more generous than mine).  If I am honest, and here Mark agreed, there is little here that makes the soul leap. But as the majority is Unsung, I am posting up in case any of the pieces should be of interest to anyone.  The concert was a "son-et-lumière" spectacle, and you can hear speech and the sound effects of war at some points in the music.

Bogdanov-Berezovsky, Valerian Mikhailovich (1903-1971) - overture-poster to the opera "The Leningraders"
Shostakovich, Dmitri (1906-1975) - "Oath to the People's Commissariat"
Zhelobinsky, Valeriy Viktorovich (1913-1946) - "A man bent over the water"
Bogdanov-Berezovsky, Valerian Mikhailovich (1903-1971) - People's scene from "The Leningraders" opera
Kamensky, Alexandr Danilovich (1900-1952) - Heroic Partizan March
Bogdanov-Berezovsky, Valerian Mikhailovich (1903-1971) - Violin Concerto in memory of Tchaikovsky - Part I
Kochurov, Yuri Vladimirovich (1907-1952) - Heroic Aria
Bogdanov-Berezovsky, Valerian Mikhailovich (1903-1971) - Entr'Acte and Scene in the bomb shelter from the opera "The Leningraders"
Veysberg, Yuliya Lazarevna (1880-1942) - lullaby from the opera Geese-Swans
Asafyev, Boris Vladimirovich (1884-1949) - choral miniature "Holy God"
Goltz, Boris Grigorevich (1913-1942) - "A Star Shines High in the Sky"
Asafyev, Boris Vladimirovich (1884-1949) - "Maybe I Will Die"
Miaskovsky, Nikolai Yakovlevich (1881-1950) - cantata "Kirov is with us" - parts 2 and 4
Kalafati, Vassily Pavlovich (1869-1942) - Ceremonial march "Stars of the Kremlin"

https://tvkultura.ru/brand/show/brand_id/61446/

Kalafati's "Solemn March of  Stakhanovite Workers' Movement" ("Torzhstvenny Marsh Udarnikov", 1931–1933) Op.25 for chamber orchestra, ordered by Soyuzkino (the Soviet film studio of the time), is the same exact work as his Stars of the Kremlin (above), with a few minor changes.

Yuliya Veysberg was the daughter-in-law of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, married to his son Andrei.

Bogdanov-Berezovsky - https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Богданов-Березовский,_Валериан_Михайлович
Zhelobinsky - https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Желобинский,_Валерий_Викторович
Kamensky - https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Каменский,_Александр_Данилович
Kochurov - https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Кочуров,_Юрий_Владимирович
Veysberg - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuliya_Veysberg
Asafyev - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Asafyev
Goltz - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Goltz