Sunlight Sonata

The third volume of piano music by Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov (pen names Dmitri N. Smirnov and D. Smirnov-Sadovsky), a Russian and British composer. He was born in 1948, studied at the Moscow Conservatory 1967-1972 under Nikolai Sidelnikov, Yuri Kholopov and Edison Denisov. He also studied privately with Philip Herschkowitz, a pupil of both Berg and Webern. In 1979 Smirnov was blacklisted as one of the Khrennikov's Seven at the "6th Congress of the Union of Soviet Composers" for unapproved participation in some festivals of Soviet music in the West. He was one of the founders of Russia's new ACM (Association for Contemporary Music), established in Moscow in 1990. Since 1991 he has been resident of England. The volume includes his 5th Piano Sonata op. 129 (2001/2005), duration ca 11', entitled "Sunlight Sonata" and inspired by the idea of Beethoven's "Moolight Sonata". This one-movement piece is dedicated to the daughter of the composer, a pianist Alissa Firsova, who premiered the Sonata in 2005 in London.