A beautiful album that has not ventured far from my CD player since its arrival.
ECM New Series 2670 / 487 8558
Maxim Rysanov (viola); Dasol Kim (piano)
Roman Mints (violin, hurdy-gurdy; Kristina Blaumane (violoncello)
BBC Concert Orchestra
Dobrinka Tabakova (conductor)
Recorded August 2020 & July 2021
The follow up to Tabakova’s acclaimed ECM New Series debut, String Paths is another exceptional recording from the British-Bulgarian composer, and every bit as intoxicating as the earlier album, and if anything embraces a wider range both in terms of the compositions and the expressiveness in which they are performed.
Soloists Maxim Rysanov, Roman Mints and Kristina Blaumane return from the String Paths recording with Rysanov and Mints featured in some delightful and thought-provoking duets. The opening ‘Whispered Lullaby’ seemingly sets the tone for the album with Tabakova’s wonderful harmonies and gently flowing melodies the order of the day with Rysanovv’s viola a fine voice when paired with pianist Dasol Kim.
‘Suite in Jazz Style’ is a cleverly developed piece in three distinct movements in which viola and piano swing somewhat lugubriously, complete with walking bassline in ‘I: Talk’, that retains that air of spontaneity associated with jazz, while ‘II: Nocturnal’ takes on a journey via a breathtakingly beautiful ballad’ The suite concludes with the appropriately lively ‘III: Dance’ replete with an ingenious rhythmic momentum that carries the piece through to its joyous conclusion.
For this listener the three pieces composed by Tabakova for strings, and performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra, are the highlights of this wonderful recording. Conducting the orchestra through her compositions, Tabakova brings a sensibility and knowledge of the music that ensures every possible nuance is clearly heard. In her ‘Fantasy Homage to Schubert the opening segment brings forth a quietly ambiguous passage from the BBC Concert Orchestra, that coalesces into a more clearly defined theme as the piece develops; and ‘Organum Light’ immediately commands the attention with its bold opening statement that continues to build through Tabakova’s arrangement for the strings.
A piece I have been returning to repeatedly is the title track, a spectacular and absorbing suite in three parts that seems to bring all to the composer/conductor’s strengths together in a single extended composition. With Tabakova’s writing embracing the play of light on the natural world, the strings alongside soloists Roman Mints and Kristina Blaumane celebrate the ‘Dawn’, ‘Day’ and ‘Dusk’ in three evocative movements. The sheer grandeur of the ‘I: Dawn’ is followed by the sweeping theme of ‘II: Day’ in a wonderous theme and exploration of the joys that a new day brings with it. In a fitting finale to the album, as well as the suite, Tabakova utilises the Concert Orchestra in an all enveloping close that brings forth the colour and light of the preceding movements that embodies that gentle conclusion of another day, and the feelings and memories that it may hold.
A beautiful album that has not ventured far from my CD player since its arrival.
