The Best Recording of Iosif Andriasov’s Musical Sketch for Flute

The best recording of Iosif Andriasov’s Musical Sketch for Flute.

Ever since I can remember, this recording of Iosif Andriasov’s Musical Sketch for Flute and String Orchestra has been an untouchable epitome that I have aspired to achieve throughout my life. My parents would tell me that from the crib, as a little child, I would cry when my father would put this recording on the tape player. I can tell you that it is because of the Musical Sketch’s sheer beauty shown.

This music composition is so sad, caring, and loving. Without ever going through sadness or pain, one will never be able to truly love and care for anybody or anything. The Musical Sketch exemplifies these traits in my ears. Knowing that Iosif Andriasov went through WWII and his father passed at the age of fifteen, I have a deep appreciation for his ability to write something beautiful and hopeful, within the confines of pure sadness. This is the composition’s most amazing trait besides the technical aspect.

A performance to match the Sketch is quite impossible to do these days. Very rarely can one be able to give to humanity like those musicians could. There are many reasons for this, but the main reason is because Iosif Andriasov passed away. He could make the most ordinary musician elevate themselves to legendary levels if they listened to him. The most important thing was that Iosif Andriasov was an incredibly humble person, with a personality that knew he was able to do and explain things that were wondrous. This ability was only possible due to two incredible qualities that he had that worked in combination: An incredible ability to live and observe the world, noticing human interactions and encounters, animal reactions to things, and the beauty of nature + being able to feel the pain and sufferings in this world. He did not pass people by in pain and just take a metaphoric selfie. He would try to help anyone around him, even at an age of 8, when he played for wounded soldiers during WWII. This inner quality cannot be taught. It is either there or it is not. One can train to become this way, but it will only be done forcibly and not genuinely.

There are other reasons why it is difficult to produce a top quality performance like this. Every musician looked up to the composer and asked for any kind of help possible to better understand this music. Nowadays, musicians seem to know everything about the composer and their composition. You would think already that these performers wrote the composition. Without understanding who Iosif was, where and from which era he came from, the musician will always look like a fool trying to interpret something they have no clue about. It is best to ask questions to family members and pupils of Iosif Andriasov. This will always set the performance to a different level. More importantly, a kind, selfless, caring, and loving person will be able to interpret this composition wonderfully. All these qualities in a person, plus the ability not to erratically fluctuate tempos, will help make a great quality performance. That is why there are few recordings done of my father’s music that survive really well after his passing.

The tempo performed by an unknown to me flutist, member of the USSR All-State Radio and TV orchestra, is unparalleled and will never be surpassed in my opinion. His true beauty lies in the ability to perform within a given tempo, while being able to not make the performance rigid. This method of performing was obviously trained by my father who participated in the recordings by giving advice to the musicians and conductor Gennady Cherkasov. What was wonderful is that there is a very limited amount of vibrato done by the musicians, another significant trait my father employed and stressed. This ability to be “clean” just emphasizes the purity of sound, the purity of the soul. Vibrato, when done without reservation, sounds like a person constantly complaining about life. My father did not complain about his hard life. He understood that it was inevitable. An astute musician that never met him, would notice this incredible trait in this recording. Purity brought to the world cannot contain any hatred and anger. This is beautiful recording personifies this pure quality. A quality that has to be a focal point in anything one does.

To read information about Iosif Andriasov’s Musical Sketch for Flute, please visit the website below.
http://www.andriasovstore.com/sketch-4-flute