Is anyone familiar with the music of this composer (full name Anatolii
Nikolaevich Aleksandrov)? A string quartet of his was on LP with the eighth
quartet of Shebalin apparently (I haven't heard that recording, though.)
Skimmed his (Aleksandrov's) 2nd symphony in Bb (op. 109 as against his
first sym.  op. 92 which I know NYPL has but which I haven't seen - both
published in the 1970s but I don't know when written) quickly recently at
Cornell library (they have some other works of his there, including some
suites of dances)- three movements, apparently light in character,
moderately dissonant- a quick glance suggests that it -might- sound like
dry mid-20th-century Soviet-style ballet music but it's hard to say what it
really does sound like without hearing something of his (like that quartet,
or a collection of piano works that were set down in the late 1960s by the
composer for Melodiia (including a Ballade, Two Romantic Episodes, a
Classic Suite, and other works.)

His 2nd piano sonata (d minor, op. 12, published in the 1920s) was
recorded by Zak (on an LP along with Tchaikovsky's early c# minor sonata
and Medtner's g minor, recorded by Feinberg and Gilels respectively, and
released around 1970.) There is also a brief vocal piece of his on a 1950s
"Paul Robeson at Carnegie Hall" LP which is the one of these four
recordings that has been remastered on CD (as Vanguard VCD-72020).

Hrm- actually, checking, some of his tenor/piano songs appear on a recent
(2000) Chandos anthology CD (Chandos CHAN 9794) too, sung by Sergei Larine.
That's probably the only readily available CD of his music unless the
Vanguard is still in circulation, and the latter only has one Aleksandrov
work to the Chandos' 4 or so.  (Though 4 songs out of a large output is
improvable as representation on records goes.)

There are at least ten piano sonatas (the tenth of them published in the
1950s) in addition to the 2 symphonies, (at least 4) string quartets,
sonatas for violin and for violoncello, a lot of piano pieces, an opera
"Levsha"- in all over 100 published opera.  However, without having heard
anything I have no clue as to the quality...

Additionally (though irrelevantly,) he was one of the editors of an
edition of Scriabin's piano works (along with Miaskovski and others.)

Anyone here heard anything of his?

-Eric Schissel