Born in Albania in 1958, Thomas Simaku studied composition at the State Conservatory of Music in Tirana. He moved to England in 1991, where he was able to immerse himself in the music that had been banned in his native country, and especially that of Ligeti and Kurtág. This, as well as his earlier experience of working with Albanian folk musicians, had a lasting effect on his own music – but as Simaku himself puts it: ‘when it comes to creativity, one should at least try to speak with one’s voice, however small that might be.’ He often composes for specific performers and the present album highlights his collaborations with Quatuor Diotima and with the pianist Joseph Houston. Catena I, the opening work as well as the most recent one on the programme, was written for Houston, while the String Quartets Nos. 4 and 5 were destined for Diotima, of which Simaku has said that ‘one cannot fail to notice their individual and sensitive approach to sound and color, and their huge range of expression. I have tried to embody these idiosyncratic qualities in both quartets.’ Houston also plays two works written by Simaku as tokens of his respect for two composer colleagues: L’image oubliée d’après Debussy and Hommage à Kurtág. These frame the piano quintet con-ri-sonanza which has also given its name to the entire album, after the sonic qualities it embodies: consonanza, risonanza, con risonanza …

The music of the composer Zeynep Gedizlioglu (born in Izmir) is like a kaleidoscope of diverse moments - sometimes fragile, sometimes harsh-angular, then again expressive and culminating in virtuoso sound ecstasies. A central motivation force of Gedizlioglu‘s music is the reaching out for the ineffable, as Dirk Wieschollek writes in the booklet of the album: “shapes solidify, contours emerge, often in imperceptible variants or shifts among things already heard, only to vanish once again.“ The perception of the world and herself, the shift between distance and approximation and the search for relations and non-relations are characteristic of the work of the composer. The alternation between antagonisms play an important role in Gedizlioglu’s work, among others in “Verbinden und Abwenden” (Connect and Reject). The composition in three acts for orchestra and ensemble places the individual opposite the collective and questions the role assignments of both, the orchestra and the ensemble. The musicians of the ensemble are spread amidst the orchestra as soloists, like “foreign objects” in unrelated instrumental families. “Kelimeler” (Words), the only vocal composition of this portrait, searches for possibilities and impossibilities of artistic speech. Based on a Turkish text which was written by the composer herself the piece focuses on “darkness” and “voice” once whispering, speaking, breathing heavily, in impulsive outbursts or linear melisma. With these recordings Zeynep Gedizlioglu presents herself both with chamber music and large compositions for ensemble and orchestra. Formations like the hr-Sinfonieorchester, Ensemble Modern and Klangforum Wien, Quatuor Diotima and the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart can be heard on this release.

WERGO presents first recordings of chamber music works by the Israeli composer Chaya Czernowin. The eponymous series of works, 'Shifting Gravity', from 2008 connects the string quartets 'Anea Christal' with the compositions 'Sheva' and 'Sahaf'. The second part of the CD consists of the 'Winter Songs III' (2003). This WERGO production shows a different side of the artist who was born in Haifa in 1957 and who, up to now, has been appreciated mainly for her stage works, in particular for the much noticed music theatre play 'Pnima ... Ins Innere' or her adaptation of Mozart's 'Zaïde / Adama'. The instrumental works were all created after the music-theatre plays, associating notions like paralysis, adherence, proliferation. The field of tension resulting therefrom corresponds with Czernowin's own descriptions: 'Anea is the imaginary name of a 'music crystal' created from a latticework of corresponding musical gestures according to the model of an ionic crystal'. 'Winter Songs' are described by her as follows: 'The whole cycle reflects the aspect of winter which is about being pulled into the inner cave... At the same time, underneath, in the ground, the roots of life slowly grow stiff and blindly start to search for a path between the stones'.

Served by very high level interpreters, the fourth volume in this series underlines and strengthens the public's growing interest in this previously unpublished repertoire. Fondation Bru plans to organize an international symposium in Venice about this unjustly forgotten composer. This new volume reveals a Lucien Durosoir somewhere between impressionism and modernism, confirming the genius of his very atypical language. Blending in with the shimmering colors of Le Balcon, for choir and string quintet, we find a tender lullaby (a French melody), a virtuoso trilogy for piano and cello, an Idylle where music becomes Poem... Ut poesis musica !

Quatuor Diotima makes its Pentatone debut with a recording of Györgi Ligeti’s string quartets. While the second quartet from 1968 is an avant-garde classic, the first from 1953-54, “Metamorphoses nocturnes”, is often nicknamed Bartók’s seventh quartet, pointing out the continuity between these two Hungarian master composers. Despite moments of nostalgia, it already possesses the ferocious, adventurous nature of the later quartet. In-between these two iconoclast works, the Andante and Allegretto from 1950 offers an intimate moment of repose. The members of Diotima long postponed recording Ligeti’s string quartets, intimidated by their significance in music history and the demands they place on the players, but now the time has come to pursue this fascinating project and share it with the world. The quartet is fascinated by the cinematic qualities of Ligeti’s music and its use in films, including Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey. The album cover pays homage to that iconic movie. Quatuor Diotima is one the most in-demand chamber ensembles in the world today, and has worked in close collaboration with several of the greatest composers of the late twentieth century. Reflected in the mirror of today’s music, the quartet projects a new light onto the masterpieces of the 19th and 20th centuries.

REVIEW:

These two works, the 2nd following 15 years on from the 1st, are not so far apart as a casual listen might indicate, and the edgy performances of the Quatuor Diotima emphasize the continuity. The String Quartet No. 1 consists of a dozen short movements that, in their economy, suggest that something other than semi-traditional melodic material is happening here, and the Quatuor Diotima gives sharp, clipped performances that bring out the modernity of the work. The Second Quartet requires hair-trigger concentration from the players and the ability to make extremely quiet sounds at the top of the instruments’ registers. The Quatuor Diotima’s performance in the various insect-like sounds in the work is nonpareil. A truly excellent Ligeti recording that penetrates deeply into the composer’s essence.

-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)

This is a remastering of a concert given by the Quatuor Diotima at the Fundación Juan March on 27 April 2022. It features the world premiere recordings of String Quartets Nos. 3 and 5 (six-movement version) by Conrado del Campo (1878-1953), one of the most original but least well-known Spanish composers of the first half of the twentieth century. The concert was part of the Proyecto Conrado, which involves programming the first complete cycle of his thirteen string quartets. This will go hand in hand with the publication of a complete edition of the scores, most of which have never been published, and the release of recordings of the quartets (in various formats). The aim of this ambitious initiative is to rescue a significant body of works from the undeserved neglect into which it has fallen.

After having worked on several pieces for bandoneon and orchestra in recent years, I felt the urge to present some of my chamber music. All music featuring the bandoneon inevitably conjures up associations with tango, and yes, my music is no exception, most apparent here in my works for bandoneon and string quartet, Violent Tenderness and Polaco. In opposition to these two works it was important for me to find as much contrast within the ensemble and the works as possible. So I landed on piano, cello, baritone voice and bandoneon in my ensemble GLO2020, for the piece Kykelipi, with lyrics by Jan Erik Vold. My aim is to expand the repertoire of the bandoneon by bringing in new sources of inspiration such as French chansons, German ‘lieder’, soul, contemporary music, Norwegian lyric and folk music, and even the Polish national anthem.

I’ve also brought in a new percussion instrument, the lurk. The desired result is to create something completely fresh where the listener can recognize the bandoneon sound and the tango rhythms but also be knocked out by the modern tonality, unpredictable chord combinations, the madness, humor, as well as some serious existential questions. Since I’m known to often use somewhat dissonant intervals such as tritones and seconds, I jokingly call my music TANGST (a combination of the words tango and angst). This can easily be translated into other languages too, such as Tanguish (in English), Tangústia (in Spanish), Tangoisse (inFrench) and Tansia (in Italian). Let me stress though, that this music is Tangst con brio or Tangst giocoso! (Per Arne Glorvigen)