Kim Kashkashian’s new album following her Spanish and Argentinian songs
on "Asturiana"olç is a carefully composed prgramme addressing fascinating
connections between three contemporary composers from Israel and
Armenia. With five pieces respectively based on traditional laments of
the Near East, Armenian chant and Hasidic melody, the focus is again on
essentially vocal expressivenss. “What we hear in this music touches off
resonances below the level of our acquired experience”, writes Paul
Griffiths in his liner notes. “Singing these songs, in a hybrid register
that embraces male and female, Kashkashian’s viola sings for us all.”
Betty Olivero started work on “Neharót Neharót” under the impression of
the suffering and pain caused by the war in Lebanon in 2006. Olivero’s
hypnotic lament for viola, accordion, percussion, two string ensembles
and tape draws on allusions to Kurdish and north African songs,
traditional oriental music and Monteverdi. The instrument’s singing
abilities come even more to the fore in Tigran Mansurian’s “Three Arias
(Sung out the window facing Mount Ararat)” which articulate the Armenian
people’s longing for the holy mountain beyond the border. “Rava
Deravin” by Israeli Eitan Steinberg is based on a melody for a poem by
one of the greatest traditional kabbalists and was first conceived in a
version for voice and instrumental ensemble. According to the composer,
Kashkashian “manages to cry the prayer from within the strings, to
murmur the sacred text with no words”.
Quite nice, far less tense and disquieting as it might be expected.
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