CD of the week

Evening Standard, London

COMPOSERS were big losers in the collapse of communism. Unwanted in the new Russia, they dispersed abroad, seeking a meager livelihood. Raykhelson, 46, born in Leningrad, plies jazz clubs and chamber halls in New York. His Little Symphony for Strings is a deceptive classical piece with lashings of ironic commentary, rather like the young Prokofiev visiting the Chernobyl disaster site.

Even more captivating is a five-minute Adagio for Viola and Strings that Yuri Bashmet delivers tenderly and without virtuosic showiness as an internal meditation on dashed idylls--perfect for late-night listening. The second half of the disc is a Jazz Suite for viola, saxophone and band, part scored, part improvised, a cross between New Orleans nostalgia and Soviet-era samizdat gatherings where musicians shook off the shackles of state and let it swing for a few hours of free expression.

Raykhelson is the latest discovery on Toccata Classics, a British label devoted to neglected composers. He won’t be ignored much longer.