Ukraine-born composer Alla Pavlova moved from Vinnitsa city
to Moscow in 1961. There she secured her B.Mus at the Ippolitov-Ivanov
Institute and her Masters from the Gnesin Academy. During 1983-86
she was based in Sofia working for the National Opera there
and for the Union of Bulgarian composers. Later she worked for
the Russian Musical Society Board again Moscow and then from
1990 in New York.
Over the years MusicWeb International has reviewed most if not
all of her CDs. While being entirely her own musical person
she is another of those composers who have found melody speaks
to them and to their audiences. Previous reviews
and a feature
cover this aspect. Suffice to say that her music presents no
real obstacle to appreciation. It’s from the heart to
the heart. Naxos have done particularly handsomely by her. They
have recorded all her symphonies on CD. This latest project
differs only from the earlier ones in that this is being released
only as a download. Those captivated by the early Pavlova symphony
discs need have no misgivings. The style is of a piece with
the other symphonies - fresh chapters of a book we are familiar
with and retaining that capacity to move.
Work on the Seventh Symphony began in the late autumn
of 2009 but owing to the composer’s mother’s illness
the final version could not be advanced until February 2011.
Of this work Pavlova says that it is a synthesis of symphonic
and string concerto genres. The mood is overwhelmingly meditative.
A crude approximation of what to expect is something between
the slow reflective music of the Glass Violin Concerto, Gorecki’s
Symphony of Sorrowful Songs and the Violin Concertos
of Tchaikovsky and Sibelius. In the third of the three movements
a more urgent pulse is found but, even so, much of this speaks
ineluctably of a delight in melody. The composer says of the
Eighth Symphony that it is “in its own way”
her “personal Ode to Joy”. The single-movement piece
is of about the same length as one movement of the Seventh.
It is more clamorous in mood than most of its predecessor. The
music is tinged with anxiety and tragedy but calm serenity is
in the ascendant - rather like the closing ten minutes of Allan
Pettersson’s Seventh Symphony: tranquillity after trauma.
The final pages are bathed in an uncannily Tchaikovskian rampant
passion. That said, serenity finally conquers all and the solo
violin again presides as sincere cantor … as bringer of
peace of mind. The musical and therapeutic values are inextricably
linked. These two symphonies have an urgent emotional eloquence
typical of this composer.
This download launches at the same time as extracts from Pavlova’s
other works appear on three Naxos mood compilations: the second
movement of her Symphony No., 3 on Eternal Strings (8.578027);
the Introduction to the Sulamith Suite on Sonic
Rebellion (8.572090) and other music of hers on Classical
Meditation (8.570364-65).
Have you given up on modern symphonies as sources of melodic
reward? Pavlova will restore your faith
Rob Barnett
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Saule Rinkeviciute (violin) (7) 
[54:19] 