ALEXANDER TCHEREPNIN, PIANO WORKS : REVIEWS/QUOTES

Alexander Tcherepnin (1899 - 1977) was born into an old and cultured family in St. Petersburg, Russia. Alexander's father was Nicolas Tcherepnin, a distinguished composer, conductor and pedagogue. Alexander came to the United States in 1926, and in 1927 gained notoriety when his First Symphony nearly provoked a riot at its premiere, police being summoned to the Paris Théâtre du Châtelet to quell an audience aroused by the work's scherzo for unpitched percussion and stringed instruments tapped with the bow as if they were wooden drums. After 1933, coincident with concert tours to the Middle East and the Orient, he found his interest in folklore. He reinvestigated Russian, Georgian, Armenian, Azerbaijan and Persian music, later becoming especially intrigued by Chinese and Japanese folk melodies. Alexander became a respected teacher and mentor at the Shanghai Conservatory, in Tokyo he founded a publishing company for new music. Throughout the far-east Tcherepnin is regarded as one of the founding fathers of modern classical eastern music.

"... Tcherepnin deserves to be rediscovered [... Martha Braden's] intelligent understanding of structure clarifies throughout ... Braden's world premiere recording fills a notable gap."
- CD REVIEW (England)

"Martha Braden does play beautifully. She's particularly adept at getting 'inside' Tcherepnin's evolving style, as she did in her fine recordings of David Kraehenbuehl... and Ross Lee Finney..."
- AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE

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