Boris Tishchenko, Symphony No. 8, St Petersburg Symphony, Yuri Serov

Any of you Russophiles who like me have missed Boris Tishchenko (1939-2010) and/or his last symphony, here is your chance. He studied with Shostakovich and has a modernist-severe rhapsodist, bracing quality like Shostakovich and Prokofiev before him. And he takes it all in his own original direction.

You can hear good performances at the Naxos price on Symphony No. 8 (Naxos 8.573343), a 2008 work which enjoys its world premiere here. You also get the characteristic, modern-laced "Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra" (2006) and the premiere recording of the chamber orchestra version of his "Two Songs to Poems of Marina Tsvetayeva" as orchestrated by Leonid Rezetdinov (1970/2014).

All sounds well in the hands of Yuri Serov conducting the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra. Guest soloists Mila Shkirtil (mezzo-soprano), Chingiz Osmanov (violin) and Nikolai Mazhara (piano) fulfill their roles with commitment and charm.

Surely none of this is filler. All three works show Tishchenko in full bloom, with brooding Russian power and lyricism as needed, but never a speck of sentimentality. He and this disk are not to be missed!