A Lurking Terrain by Margarita Kuss: Orchestral Style and Timbral Poetics

The stylistic features of orchestral writing by Margarita Ivanovna Kuss (1921–2009) are examined in this article for the first time in Russian art studies. Her music was performed by the best Russian ensembles and conductors. M. Kuss was a musical authority for the leading musicians of the Soviet Union. For many years her house was a centre of attraction for the greatest modern Russian composers (D. Shostakovich, N. Peyko, B. Tchaikovsky, R. Bunin, M. Weinberg, G. Sviridov, G. Ustvolskaya). M. Kuss opinions and appraisals were valuable not only for the young composers, but also for world-known masters A Poem based on Russian Folk Songs (1961), A Lyrical Poem (1988), Three Poems: A Distant Spring, An Evening Song, An Evening in Light (1994) — these are the parts of a meta-cycle. And the last part of it is a symphonic poem A Lurking Terrain (1999–2000), first performed at the Large Hall of Moscow Conservatory on December 21st, 2002. The Tchaikovsky Large Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Vladimir Fedoseev. The composer's style in this score is embodied in a most impressive form. The research methods used in this article, along with the analysis of the composer's and conductor's phenomenology, could be used in further studies of the large symphonic legacy of M. Kuss. It is important both in the research context, and in the musician's practice.