Russian film composer Mikael Tariverdiev (1931-1996) scored over 130 films during his lifetime, he also wrote classical music for more than a hundred romances, ballets, operas and chamber vocal cycles. Yet he wasn’t known that widely in the West. Earth recordings are attempting to rectify that, having already released a 51 track 3LP boxset of Tariverdiev’s music in 2015, as well as three additional reissues. Their latest focusses on more jazz orientated styles, something that he wasn’t particularly known for. They come from cinema and TV movies of the 1960s and 1970s and centre on Tariverdiev playing at the piano and keyboard.
This is what his surviving widow, Vera Tariverdieva has to say about it:
“Astoundingly, he said more than once that he wasn’t fond of jazz. This perplexed me, as he’d always been great at improvisation. Imagine my amazement then when I rummaged through one of our old closets and found a crumbling old tape. It was the score for the 1964 film ‘Until Tomorrow’. I played it. And the realisation came: not only had Mikael had been fond of jazz — no, he’d been an amazing jazz musician.”
Visions in Black & White is released by Earth Recordings on the 6th of November. You can find it here.
