Yekimov S. Lines from “War and Peace” by L. Tolstoy. For mixed choir a cappella

There are not many examples of musical compositions based on the works of Lev Tolstoy. Perhaps the most famous of them are Prokofiev’s opera War and Peace and Shchedrin’s ballet Anna Karenina. Held in 2018 in Moscow, the All-Russian Competition of Composers Kreutzer Sonata, dedicated to the 190th anniversary of the great Russian writer, revealed quite a few works by composers who skillfully and unusually used the texts by Lev Tolstoy.
We offer to your attention the work of one of the winners of the Kreutzer Sonata Competition — Sergei Yekimov (b. 1974).This piece stands apart from the body of choral work by this composer, as it is written in the dodecaphonic technique for the twelve-voiced mixed choir a cappella, and only coda is resolved in a different polytonal style. The famous reflections of the wounded Andrei Bolkonsky from his novel War and Peace served as a literary basis.
S. Yekimov’s work Lines from “War and Peace” by Lev Tolstoy may be regarded as a showpiece for choir competitions, revealing skill and métier level and demanding full palette of colors and capabilities of the choir team.