In the 1970s, associated with the most cutting-edge Soviet avant-garde, whose most prominent figures were Schnittke, Gubaidulina and Pärt (the latter quickly turned away from the avant-garde of his early years), and had the honor of being one of the seven blacklisted by the Great Leader of the Soviet Composers Union, Tikhon Khrennikov (the others were Elena Firsova, Dmitri Smirnov, Alexander Knaifel, Viktor Suslin, Vyacheslav Artyomov and Gubaidulina – see Wikipedia’s entry – and I wonder how Schnittke didn’t get included). But, if I may dare, Denisov didn’t quite “deliver” as originally as Schnittke and Gubaidulina, making him an esteemable composer rather than a great one.
So far Denisov is represented on this website only through two pieces:
His Sonata for solo clarinet from 1972, played by Ensemble Intercontemporain’s Alain Damiens on a 1988 recital CD published on Adda 581066 (later reissued by Accord) with other contemporary works for solo clarinet by Stravinsky, Boulez, Stockhausen, Donatoni and Berio.
Crescendo e Diminuendo for harpsichord and 12 strings from 1965, performed by Joel Spiegelman (see the review about how I was able to give due credit) and the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein (a recording from 20 May 1967) on the collection from the Bernstein Century edition, “Music Of Our Time” with works of Ligeti, Feldman, Schuller and Messiaen, Sony SMK 61845 (1999)