The highly romantic music of Alla Pavlova, a Russian composer now resident in the USA, has been praised for its ‘surreal serenity…woven with unflinching sadness, without concessions to short attention spans and all within the long émigré tradition of nostalgia for homeland’ (MusicWeb) and its ‘integrity and good old-fashioned craft’ (Fanfare). These traits are amply evident in her highly emotional Symphony No. 6, inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s famous painting The Starry Night and dedicated to the tormented artist, and the delightful suite from her ballet Thumbelina, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale.
