Raykhelson's Piano & Cello Concerto

Igor Raykhelson was born in St. Petersburg on 24 April 1961. He was admitted to the Leningrad Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in 1976 where he studied both classical and jazz piano. Early in his career he formed a jazz quartet. Until his mid-thirties he was a pianist, touring the former Soviet-Union. Raykhelson came to composing relatively late in his career after a meeting with Yuri Bashmet who asked him to compose a work that would combine jazz and classical elements. His music shows a fondness for jazz harmonies and melodies combined with a Romantic approach. By integrating jazz within classical stylees and structures Raykhelson continues the tradition of his illustrous countrymen Shostakovich, Shchedrin and Kapustin who pay homage to jazz in their own compositions.

Volume Three of Orchestral Music by Igor Raykhelson contains his Piano Concerto in G minor (2007) and his Cello Concerto in B minor (2010), both wonderful compositions and performances (Toccata Classics TOCC 0219).