Alexander Alexandrovich Alyabiev (1787-1851) is beyond any doubt the greatest Russian Musician of his generation (before Glinka). Why, then is he not known better ? Well…his life reads like a novel ; an officer with the imperial army, he was contaminated by liberal ideas in Paris in 1812 and got close to the Decembrist's movement, which got him condemned in the 20ies and deported to Siberia a few years later. He there mixes and confronts Caucasian and « white » music (several decades before Borodin espouses the idea) and finally gets back to Moscow in 1843, in pretty poor health.

« Father of the Russian music », the Russian history books keep saying about Glinka. But what do we generally hear from Mikhail Glinka, except the echoes of Russlan and Ludmilla or from A Life for the Tsar (this CD includes the extraordinary danced interludes brought together by Peter Klimov)? The Moscow Chamber Orchestra, who revealed Alyabiev (FUG 539) offers a outstanding selection on this album. Besides well known works like The Kamarinskaïa or Nocnhoj smotr popularised by Chaliapine and announcing, 50 years in advance, Wolf and Mahler, most of it is indeed unpublished or rare work in the disc repertoire that are gathered here: deliciously diverted Italianisms, stunning fantasies prefiguring Rimski-Korsakov, and especially, everywhere, the colours of a romantic genius.