Moscow Art Trio
Once upon a time
$17.99

Mikhail Alperin, Arkady Shilkloper and Sergey Starostin are reunited in this 2001 recording of the Moscow Art Trio. They are joined by Norwegian vocalist Eli Kristin Hovdsveen Hagen in an original interpretation of Alperin's own poetry, and folk music from all over Europe.

Bio and info from the record label:

Mikhail Alperin's MOSCOW ART TRIO

Mikhail Alperin was born in the Ukraine in 1956 and grew up in a rural area of Bessarabia, the eastern part of Moldavia. Until 1976 he studied classical piano at music schools and academies in the Ukraine and Moldavia. Since 1977 he has worked as a free-lance arranger, composer and practising musician. In 1980, along with Simon Shirman, Alperin founded the first Moldavian jazz quartet by developing his idea of linking jazz and folk.

Like most of the world's musicians, Alperin was obliged to earn his living with dance and party music. For the young musician, however, this music embodied things old and past. The future and freedom were to be found in music influenced by the West, music like rock and jazz. It was not until he had played in Moscow jazz circles for several years that he discovered the musical sounds of his native country for his own work. In Moscow he found other musicians also interested in integrating the musical traditions of their countries into jazz as an element of equal value, and in drawing from the rich tradition of the music of the peoples of the immense Soviet Union. It was during this period that he made the acquaintance of the brilliant hornist Arkadij/Arkady Shilkloper, a member of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra who nevertheless also belonged to the circle of jazz musicians.

Arkady Shilkloper French horn, vocals

A native of Moscow, at the age of six Arkadij/Arkady Shilkloper began playing brass instruments and studied fluegelhorn at the Moscow Military Music Academy until 1974. From 1978 to 1985 he was a member of the orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre and the "Bolshoi Brass Quintet." With this world-famous ensemble and as a member of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra from 1985 to 1989 he undertook numerous world-wide concert tours. Since the collapse of the former Soviet Union Shilkloper has worked independently both as a solo performer and, since 1991, with Alperin and Starostin in the Moscow Art Trio and in other formations. Shilkloper is in demand as a soloist and a teacher for brass instrument workshops and symposia the world over.

Sergey Starostin clarinet, folk reeds, vocals

Sergey/Sergeij Starostin was born on January 1, 1956 in Moscow. He received his first musical education in a boy's choir before studying clarinet with Gusev and Sokolov at the Moscow Conservatory. Quite early on he was interested in Russian folklore, particularly the rich traditions of Russian folk music, which he began to collect and study during his travels. Since 1982 he has given seminars and performed as a vocalist and player of traditional wind instruments. Since 1987 he has been introducing listeners to traditional music on his own radio programme in the Russian broadcasting system, and since 1991 he has directed a television programme on folk music in Moscow. As author and producer Starostin realised the "World Village Show," a programme on world music for Russian television. Through his affinity to Russian music and the music of the Lapps, he became acquainted with Mary Boine with whom he has made recordings in Moscow and Oslo. In 1990 Starostin augmented the Alperin / Shilkloper Duo to the Moscow Art Trio with which he has performed in Europe, USA, Africa and Japan as a singer and instrumentalist.

About thiis recording

With the waning of the 20th century, it looked like the Moscow Art Trio was just as much history as the millennium itself. After a somewhat sad farewell to singer-clarinetist Starostin and hornplayer Shilkloper, Alperin left for Spain to stay there for about half a year and work on other projects. At the time he felt that the trio had exhausted its potential and wouldn’t be capable of renewing itself. He turned out to be entirely wrong.

While in Spain, Misha Alperin composed new material. Little did he know that what was to emerge, were compositions suited exactly for a possible reunion of the Moscow Art Trio. In April, the three musicians tested out the new repertory on tours in Russia and Europe, and since then, it has gone through important changes and further developments. When the trio again appeared in their beloved Rainbow Studios in Oslo, Norway, in November 2000, under the guidance of their favourite sound engineer, Jan Erik Kongshaug, both repertory and performance – recorded on this CD – showed an even greater level of unity, closeness, clarity, sense of timing, and precision than before. The music was somewhat less marked by free improvisation – except for Arkady Shilkloper’s now looser, more ripened solos, played with more authority – than by the compositional approach known to classical music, but still fresh and jazzy in its expressive force. The compositions and the arrangements, all written by Alperin, are new altogether, except for an old Alperin piano theme, now face-lifted and built into a new composition, the extended entity now called "My Dance".

A recent feature is also the nature of the lyrics. Instead of using old Russian folk song texts, Starostin presents his own poetry, based on a folkloristic concept. Alperin had earlier deemed it impossible to compose written music for folk musicians. But Starostin is not only a genuine and well-skilled performer of folklore. In addition, he is professionally trained in classical music. On this album, he shows that this kind of versatility makes him exactly the man for the task of performing such compositions.

New is also the influence of Asian music and rap-style to be found on this CD, whereas the traces of Norwegian musical ideas have developed gradually – more or less unconsciously but naturally – in the course of Alperin’s several years of living in Norway.

Not surprisingly, therefore, in addition to the trio, the multi-talented Norwegian singer, Eli Kristin Hovdsveen Hagen, appears as guest soloist on some of the tracks of this CD. She toured with the troika during the phase of experiments with Alperin’s material. And believe it or not, but the voice you hear on "Opera Rap" is hers, though with a technically distorted pitch to give it a recognisable "male" rap touch.

Misha Alperin’s basic concept of music is to let the compositions and the performers tell stories, or as he himself likes to word it, "a musical tale about a story", reflected, of course, in the CD’s title, Once Upon a Time. This album is yet another example of the trio aiming to do precisely that, with refreshed and refreshing energy in the band’s eleventh year of existence.

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