Credits:

Daniel Rowland, David Zemtsov

Description:

Russian composer Yevgeny Zemtsov. Although he lost his father in the war at the age of four and his family lived in poverty, he began taking violin lessons and quickly demonstrated his talent, eventually gaining admission to the Tambov Conservatory. However, he injured his left hand from over-practicing and switched to composition. A few years later, he enrolled at the Moscow Conservatory to further his studies. He had already composed numerous works during his student years, and this album includes violin pieces written during that periodinfluenced by Tchaikovsky and Prokofievas well as string quartets and piano pieces. In the 1980s, he became fascinated by Japanese and Chinese poetry, which led to the creation of the mystical Five Japanese Poems, based on poems by Matsuo Bash and shima Ryta. One Mas, composed in 2004, is an atonal work notable for its use of clusters. Zemtsov