The program features Desyatnikov’s chamber pieces composed in various years—from his landmark Love and Life of a Poet, a song cycle on the poetry of Daniil Kharms and Nikolai Oleinikov, to Songs of Bukovina, a new piece loosely based on Ukrainian folk songs. The program will be performed by an ensemble of Russian musicians led by pianist Alexey Goribol.

It should be recalled that Desyatnikov is not only the composer that inspired many of Alexei Ratmansky’s ballets for the New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theater (ABT), he also composed opera The Children of Rosenthal to the libretto by Vladimir Sorokin, and arranged music by Astor Piazzolla, and created music to such movies as Sunset, Moscow Nights, All That Is Tender, Moscow, His Wife’s Diary.

Desyatnikov’s musical ideas tap into the Russian classical tradition. The melodic developments of Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and Stravinsky proved to be more important for the composer than the bold advances of the XX century avant-garde. Desyatnikov’s style, delicate, subtle and infused with wittiness and irony is very much of our time.