Taneyev: Suite de concert & Ioann Damaskin

Inspired by a poem by Aleksey Tolstoy, Taneyev’s cantata John of Damascus was the first work that the self-critical Russian composer deemed worthy of an opus number, its sublime music drawing on an ancient sacred chant woven into rich passages of expressive counterpoint. A quarter of a century later, the virtuosic and scintillating Suite de concert, Taneyev’s first work for solo violin and orchestra, was also successfully premièred.