Renewal / Hughes, Azkoul, United Strings of Europe
BIS
SACD
$10.99$21.99Save 50%Jan 07, 2022
Having released their debut album In motion in 2020, the musicians that make up United Strings of Europe (USE) return with another innovative program: Renewal. The title refers in part to the fact that the majority of the works included are heard in arrangements and adaptations tailormade for the ensemble by Julian Azkoul, who also directs it from the violin. In Winter’s House by Joanna Marsh and Caroline Shaw’s and the swallow are both originally choral works while a second work by Shaw, Entr’acte, was conceived for string quartet, but is here heard in the composer’s own version for string orchestra. A similar treatment has been given Mendelssohn’s F minor String Quartet, one of the composer’s final works, written in reaction to the unexpected death of his beloved sister Fanny. For the centerpiece of the disc, Osvaldo Golijov’s Three Songs, USE is joined by soprano Ruby Hughes. The three songs were written for different occasions, but were rearranged by the composer to form a single work, capturing various strands of his immigrant identity as well as specific moments of inspiration, both felicitous and tragic. This is the first time all three songs appear with string orchestra on album.
Encounter brings together two towering works of contemporary chamber music that speak across cultures, histories, and inner worlds. Osvaldo Golijov's The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind and Peteris Vasks' String Quartet No. 6 arise from profoundly different traditions-Jewish mysticism and Baltic spirituality-yet meet in a shared search for truth, memory, and transcendence. Both works are intensely personal, rooted in lived experience and belief, and animated by music's power to give voice to what lies beyond words: longing, suffering, hope, and illumination. In this recording, these worlds do not merely coexist; they listen to, reflect, and transform one another. Performed by the Arethusa Quartet with clarinetist Chen Halevi, Encounter is also a meeting of artistic journeys. Golijov's ecstatic, ritual-like score unfolds as a spiritual ascent through dreams, prayers, and blindness-understood as deeper inner vision-while Vasks' Sixth Quartet traces a life's arc from farewell and remembrance to a final, hushed encounter with transcendence, illuminated by echoes of Beethoven. Across both works, vulnerability and intensity are balanced by stillness and song, darkness by light. What emerges is an album that feels at once intimate and universal: an affirmation of shared humanity, and a reminder of music's enduring ability to connect past and present, earth and spirit, performer and listener. = Curiosa is conceived as a personal "cabinet of curiosities" by violinist Jorge Jiménez, bringing together music that entered his life through years of travel, collaboration, and discovery. The album spans laments, dances, preludes, fugues, and songs from both renowned and anonymous sources, ranging from the Middle Ages to the Baroque and beyond. Each piece is selected for it's emotional depth, strangeness, and expressive power, forming a living repertoire shaped in rehearsals, late-night conversations, concerts, and recording sessions. Central to the project is Jiménez's fascination with unaccompanied music and historical instruments, particularly the baroque violin and vielle, whose raw and earthy sound transports the listener into earlier sound worlds. Throughout Curiosa, Jiménez weaves together personal heritage, musical memory, and imaginative storytelling. His own arrangements connect Bach, Dowland, Strozzi, Gaspar Sanz, and traditional tunes with vivid images. Joined by Joy Smith on early harps and Daniel Garay on historical percussion, and performing with his ensemble Tercia Realidad, Jiménez blends historical insight with spontaneity and improvisation. The result is an album that feels both intimate and expansive-music passed "between hands, ears, and hearts," constantly transforming while remaining deeply rooted in shared curiosity and human connection. Jorge Jiménez: "These pieces entered my life through the extraordinary musicians and ensembles I've been fortunate to work with across Europe. They form a living repertoire shaped in rehearsal rooms, late-night conversations, recording sessions, and concerts." = During the darkest of the lockdowns, I took my daughter to an open field near our home. In a time when the world felt shuttered and small, walking was our only escape from the suffocating stillness. As we reached the field, a sudden sensation washed over me-a quiet awakening. It wasn't just the spring breeze or the scent of the grass; it was a sudden reminder of what being alive meant. I felt I had been touched by Zephyr, the Greek god of the west wind, sparking a renewed wish to create and perform for the world once more. Liberte´: A piece exploring and searching for emotional freedom. Zephyr: Named after the gentle west wind, this track served as the primary source of inspiration for the entire album. Fushigi no Kuni: Translating to "Wonderland" in Japanese, this piece was inspired by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland written by Lewis Carroll. A Troubadour in the Moonlight: A composition and improvisation depicting a minstrel serenading a loved one beneath the moon. For Misato: A heartfelt dedication to Misato-san, my dear friend who departed too young. The five songs above are composed by Yukari. Eurus, Suibokuga, Pandora's Box, Don't Follow the Piper, and Au crépuscule are collective improvisations. = "We can imagine some eyebrows being raised at the description of Dora Pejacevic as a contemporary of Brahms; the two composers were born more than fifty years apart, and their lives only overlapped by twelve years. Yet both works by Pejacevic are unmistakably from the same compositional lineage as that by Brahms; and both are works written early on in Pejacevic's remarkable (and, sadly, all-too-short) life. Both pieces belong clearly to the romantic tradition, displaying no hint of the more modernist directions which her later works would take. We were immediately intoxicated by the passionate sweep of Pejacevic's Piano Quartet, but also the tenderness of it's slow movement, and felt it would make the perfect bedfellow for the First Piano Quartet of Brahms, a piece to which Tom has felt particularly close since student days. Brahms's Piano Quartet is justly one of the best-loved of all chamber works, and few works are more exhilarating to perform: the first movement offers an abundance of glorious themes; the second takes us to a mysterious dreamworld; the third luxuriates in expansive lyricism; then the fiery virtuosity of the gypsy finale sends us headlong to the finish line. This album brings us to the end of our recorded journey through Brahms's three piano quartets, and it has been the greatest privilege and joy to record these works, alongside three major piano quartets by composers who deserve to be far better known. However, we are pleased to say that the series does not end here: looking beyond the piano quartets, we have further albums in preparation, pairing Brahms with his brilliant and lesser-played contemporaries." -Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective
Perfectly Free brings together two contemporary cello concertos-Osvaldo Golijov's Azul and Anna Clyne's DANCE-in a live recording that cellist Maja Bogdanovic describes as a deeply personal journey of discovery. Both works received their Dutch premieres during the Stift International Music Festival with the Phion Symphony Orchestra, under the batons of David Cohen (Azul) and Xandi van Dijk (DANCE). Golijov's Azul is portrayed as a poetic, otherworldly tapestry of colors and styles, ranging from Baroque influences to Piazzolla-inflected rhythms, enriched by an unusual orchestration featuring a prominent accordion and a wide spectrum of exotic percussion. The concerto unfolds like a cosmic vision-at times improvisatory, at times prayerful-culminating in sound worlds that evoke radio signals, stardust, and distant galaxies. Clyne's DANCE, inspired by Rumi's poetry, contrasts this with a five-movement exploration of raw emotion and virtuosity, stretching the expressive and technical boundaries of the cello. Moving from fragility to rhythmic intensity, from Baroque purity to diabolical energies, the work blends folk elements, lyrical lines, and personal nostalgia-including a final, haunting dedication to the composer's father. Bogdanovic emphasizes the profound artistic partnerships behind the recording, noting the rare creative "telepathy" experienced with Golijov and the intuitive collaboration with van Dijk. Golijov says: "Perhaps the greatest joy I know in music is telepathy between composer and performer. I am beginning to get used to it when I experience it with life-long collaborators who instantly understand the music I only understand myself after months of working on it. But I am startled when telepathy happens with a musician I have just met. This is what happened with Maja: No need for words to explain anything. Maja understands Azul better than I understand it myself. This gives me a great sense of relief. I know I don't need to be present for my music to live in the world. I am grateful to Maja for that. David Cohen and the Phion Symphony Orchestra prove to be ideal shipmates in this Azul recording that I love dearly. To have it paired with Anna Clyne's gorgeous music makes the recording even more special and closer to my heart." The project reflects the "Perfectly Free" spirit of the Stift Festival-fearless, generous, and adventurous-capturing not only two landmark contemporary concertos but also the shared inspiration of the musicians who brought them to life.
Together with it's artistic director Julian Azkoul, the United Strings of Europe develop engaging programmes with the aims of finding threads between different works and epochs, musical cultures and backgrounds, of blending the familiar with the new and of encouraging people to listen to works in different ways and discover new repertoire. For it's new release entitled Hommages, the ensemble celebrates musical traditions, from the myth of Apollo and the muses of Greek Antiquity to legends of the 20th century, Carlos Gardel and Astor Piazzolla, renewed by contemporary voices. Inspired by dreams and recollections of the past, this imaginative programme features recent works alongside the world premiere recording of Julian Azkoul's arrangement of Igor Stravinsky's neo-classical ballet Apollon musagete, composed during the 1920s. While Dobrinka Tabakova's Organum Light, here recorded for the first time, was inspired by Einstein's theory of quantum light, Osvaldo Golijov has returned to his Argentinian roots for Last Round, a tribute to two legendary compatriots. As for Olli Mustonen (who can be heard as a pianist on several other BIS recordings), his Second Nonet is a timeless work in which we hear echoes of the Balkans, music from the Romantic period and Nordic moods. A further work by Mustonen, Apotheosis, another world premiere recording, concludes this varied programme on a dramatic note, inspired by Bach's chorale preludes.
The special vibrations that the Hohenstaufen Chamber Music Festival generates are directly audible in the contents of this anniversary CD box, which consists solely of live performances. The choice of music ranges far and wide through all periods and genres: from Johann Sebastian Bach through key works of the Viennese Classical school and the German Romantics to French Impressionist compositions and classics of the Modern era. There are jazz numbers and contemporary works too, a further pointer to the ethos of the Hohenstaufen Chamber Music Festival, which does not call for tradition to be upheld on principle but aims at a constant rediscovery of the world and it's inhabitants through their sounds and timbres, no matter whether they come from "old" or "new", "serious" or "light" music. Hohenstaufen doesn't pigeonhole things like that; it believes in taking your partners to make "good" music. Music is good, quite simply, when it moves us, uplifts us, challenges us. "Music must never be comfy," to quote the pithy conclusion that Helmuth Rilling, to whom the Festival is greatly indebted, once drew. "It must stir people, touch them personally, give them food for thought." If the pieces brought together here can achieve this, the Hohenstaufen Chamber Music Festival will have received the biggest twentieth birthday present it could have.
These works were commissioned by the International Bach Academy in Stuttgart to write works to mark Bach Year 2000. Osvaldo Golijov´s Pasión Según San Marcos is the work of one who moves back and forth between different worlds and can scarcely be pigeonholed as representing a specific culture. His work unites the music of South America, Cuba, the West and Jewish tradition to produce an unconventional conception of a “Passion“ in which Jesus is not a light skinned European, but instead a person of color. Sofia Gubaidulina's response was a St John Passion, and subsequently she added a sequel, St John Easter, which was premiered in Hamburg in March 2002. Both those works originally had Russian words, drawn mostly from St John's gospel and the Book of Revelation, but in 2006, prompted by conductor Helmuth Rilling, Gubaidulina collaborated on a German translation of the text, while also making revisions to the score itself.
