Symphonie Ukrainiennes / Symphonie Russe / Evstignej Fomin: Orchestral Pieces From Boeslavich [CD]

History teaches us that we should be wary of attaching such absolute labels as "inventor of " or "father or mother of ' with the blanks to be filled in with every conceivable phenomenon from the string quartet to film. For time and again, deeper research necessitates revisions - as in the case here, where suddenly two new fathers of Russian music relegate the younger Mikhail Glinka and the mighty handful to the back seats. Bohemian Ernst Wanczura (pronounced Van-CHUR-a), born ten years before Mozart, ended up in St Petersburg and was possibly the first composer to use folk songs in his delightful Symphonies Op. 1 and Op. 2. His colleague Fomin, fifteen years his junior, with the beautiful first name Yevstigney Ipat'yevich, a pupil of the famous Bolognese Padre Martini at the state's expense, was particularly successful with stage works. His melodramas and operas are veritable parabolic mirrors in which Italian, Russian and Western stylistic features coalesce into a distinctive expression that could undoubtedly have become a significant force had Fomin been granted a longer life.