1. HAPPY OVERTURE (1987) for orchestra
2. THREE ROMANCES (1988) for violin and orchestra
Igor Frolov, violin
3. PRELUDE & FUGUE (1987)
for keyboard, version for 2 toy pianos (1993)
Margaret Leng Tan, 2 toy pianos (played simultaneously)
4. DREAM QUARTET (1986) for violin, viola, cello and piano
Ensemble Musica da Camera
5. SYMPHONY No.1 (1992)
Moscow Symphony Orchestra
Milos Raickovich, conductor
Yugoslavian born Milos Raickovich writes modern music in a new and accessibly appealing style which he calls NewClassicism. New Classicism is, to quote Mark Swed from his insightful liner notes for the CD: “…neither ironic nornaive but is, instead, a unique postmodern response to both Minimalism and multiculturalism. It is surely possible tohear Schubert, Haydn or Rossini in Raickovich’s “New Classicism”; but under Schubert, Haydn or Rossini lie EasternEuropean folk music, Minimalism, Messiaen, and, deeper still the Pacific Rim and its cultures. All are part ofRaickovich’s remarkable musical roots, but they operate in the background, nested like the windows on a computer screen.
Listen to Raickovich’s Symphony No.1 with a modern ear, and out of those Schubertian patterns, patterns more akin toPhilip Glass seem to magically pop out like hidden figures…”
Milos Raickovich was born in 1956 and began his musical studies in Belgrade. His college years were spent inParis, taking Messiaen’s composition classes at the Conservatoire. All the while he remained active in the Belgrade newmusic scene, forming his own ensemble inspired by American minimalist groups and helping to found the Belgrade YouthPhilharmonic.
Raickovich moved to Los Angeles in 1981 and became active in the avant-garde Independent Composers Association whileattending master classes in conducting with Herbert Blomstedt and studying film music at UCLA. In 1988, he moved to NewYork where he studied with David Del Tredici and received a Ph.D. in composition. In 1992, he taught in Hiroshima andstudied the koto. Raickovich now lives in Brooklyn, New York.
The critically acclaimed Margaret Leng Tan performs his Prelude & Fugue, arranged especially for her to beperformed on 2 toy pianos simultaneously. The orchestral works are superbly played by the Moscow Symphony Orchestrafeaturing the noted Russian violinist Igor Frolov.