Powerful & intense: the music of Elena Firsova & Dmitri Smirnov reflects their friendship with Rudersdal Chamber Players but also links back to Schnittke, Gubaidulina & Denisov

Love and Loss: Elena Firsova, Dmitri Smirnov; Rudersdal Chamber Players; OUR Recordings
Reviewed 15 December 2025

The Danish contemporary music ensemble pays tribute to its friendship with Elena Firsova and Dmitri Smirnov with a programme of powerful and uncompromising yet surprisingly lyrical music

There is a fascinating transnational quality to Love and Loss on OUR Recordings. Performed by Rudersdal Chamber Players, one of the Nordic region’s leading ensembles for contemporary music. The disc represents a special tribute to their friendship with the composers, Elena Firsova and Dmitri Smirnov, which dates back to 2019. Both born in Russia, Firsova and Smirnov met and fell in love while studying at the Moscow Conservatoire, but despite some success they ran afoul of officialdom and were denounced as members of The Seven, a group of non-conforming composers that included Denisov, Firsova, Smirnov, and Gubaidulina, at the 6th Congress of the Union of Soviet Composers. They moved to England in 1991, and their daughter is Russian-British composer Alissa Firsova.

Founded in 2017 by violinist Christine Pryn at the suggestion of Russian-American composer Lera Auerbach, Rudersdal Chamber Players has become the ensemble-in-residence at Rudersdal Sommerkoncerter based in the Danish municipality of Rudersdal some 20 kim north of Copenhagen. The core of the ensemble is a piano quartet, but the instrumentation is flexible and can be adapted to suit different venues and programmes and on this disc we hear Jonas Frølund, clarinet, Christine Pryn, violin, Marie Stockmarr Becker, viola, John Ehde, cello, and Manuel Esperilla, piano.

Smirnov died in 2020 at the beginning of COVID, and the disc is not only a tribute to a relationship dating back to 2019 but a celebration of the ensemble's continuing friendship with Firsova. The music of both composers was featured at the 2019 Rudersdal Sommerkoncerter festival and this led to commissions from Firsova, Four Seasons, and Smirnov, to be or not to be... Both of which works are included on the disc.

The disc begins with Smirnov's Abel, written in 1991. One of the first works he wrote after moving to England, it was premiered at the St Magnus Festival, and it reflects Smirnov's long and fruitful fascination with the works of William Blake. Abel was inspired by Blake's, The Body of Abel found by Adam and Eve (1826) with the four instruments representing the characters, Abel — clarinet, Eve — violin, Adam — cello, and Cain — piano. The sound world at the beginning is sparse and expressionist, the clarinet supported by the strings. The work draws you in, unsettling at first and then moments of violent intensity, but the overall sound world is spare. Each instrument has its moment, interactions are intense, with sections where the underlying piano feels positively threatening. Towards the end, time feels suspended, the writing becomes sparse and the work evaporates. It is a powerful piece, lyrical yet uncompromising.

to be or not to be..., its title hinting at the Danish setting, but there is also a nod to Messiaen's Quartet for the end of time. The work is a piano quartet, with a focus on the viola. Again, the piano writing here is dark and threatening, the instrumental lines emerging as lyrical yet intense. As with the earlier piece, Smirnov's voice comes over as powerful and uncompromising, yet with an underlying sense of lyricism. The work has engaging moments, but overall the tone us unsettling and only towards the end does is become thoughtful.

Firsova's Piano Quartet No. 2 Four Seasons was also written for Rudersdal. She has said that "The four movements are a description of the English seasons, starting from a mild Winter, a beautiful Spring, a short Summer and a rather sad Autumn." 'Winter' is spare and bleak, with interesting instrumental colours and an underlying sense of narrative. The music goes straight on into 'Spring' which is poised with a feeling of time suspended at first. When the music moves on, lines intertwine, growing in intensity and sprigs of faster instrumental motifs gather. 'Summer' is fast and urgent, busy strings are urged on by the piano and then everything evaporates. The terrific final movement, 'Autumn' begins with densely interweaving lines urged on by a panicky piano. Eventually the music becomes thoughtful yet it is never easy.

The disc ends with Firsova's Quartet for the Time of Grief, a work written after Smirnov's death in 2020, and reflecting the title and instrumentation of Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time. Here Firsova explores the central theme of time passing, reflecting too, the unworldly cessation of activity at the time of the pandemic.

It opens with a spare solo cello line, concentrated and quietly building to intense, dense moments. Though much of the writing is spare, there are powerful interludes which are almost destabilising, yet there is a sense of gradual unwinding albeit with subtle disturbance from the piano. It is a remarkable piece, powerful and intense, yet very thoughtful.

This is a remarkable and powerful disc. Just four pieces yet there is so much concentrated in each one and the performances from Rudersdal Chamber Players are superlative. Highly recommended.

Dmitri Smirnov (1948-2020) - Abel (1991)
Dmitri Smirnov - to be, or not to be... (2018/2019)
Elena Firsova (born 1950) - Piano Quartet No. 2 Four Seasons (2019)
Elena Firsova - Quartet for the Time of Grief (2023)
Rudersdal Chamber Players (Jonas Frølund, clarinet, Christine Pryn, violin, Marie Stockmarr Becker, viola, John Ehde, cello, and Manuel Esperilla, piano)
Recorded April 28 - May 1 2025 in Nærum Adventistkirke
OUR Recordings 8.226932 1CD

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