Vioolconcert, Symfonie Nr 22 (1987)

"Myaskovski is hardly a front-rank composer, but acquaintance with his work is important if one wants a rounded picture of Russian music. It shows what happened to the academic tradition after the decline of Glazunov, and it shows that there was a real creative middle ground between modernists and populists. It is astonishing that the Russians have done so little to keep his music alive. This is a reissue of Melodiya recordings from 1974. The works date from 1942 and 1938 respectively. There is actually nothing particularly Slavic about Miaskovsky's style, the concerto finale seems about to go into Beethoven's Violin Concerto but instead deflects into Brahms's (more or less), and apart from Brahms, the composers who most readily come to mind are Barber and Walton (in relatively absent-minded mood). The ideas are comforting in their tuneful near-familiarity, but rarely more than superficial in expressive terms. The music is easy to like, difficult to love (or hate)." (Gramophone, 1988)