Karen Bentley Pollick; Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra; John McLaughlin Williams - Concertos from the Caucasus, Vol. 1 CD

In the early years of the twentieth century, a first wave of composers in the Caucasus laid down the basis of their national schools by grafting the outlines of Western classical music onto local folk traditions. By mid-century, a second generation took up the challenge more thoroughly, their compositions confidently handling the large forms of the concert hall, though still drawing on regional idioms. The Soviet orthodoxy of the day expected its composers to abide by the rules, but the three composers heard here – two Azeris and a Georgian, all young men when they wrote the violin concertos on this album – brought something fresh and individual to the task, marrying East and West, form and freedom, tradition and originality.